Collaboration in Clinical Ethics Consultation: A Method for Achieving 'Balanced Accountability'

摘要

Weise and Daly (2014) refer to current debates about the role and function of clinical ethicists, including clinical ethicists' qualifications, required competencies, and evaluation of their impact on patient care and within health institutions. They propose that accountability for a clinical ethicist's advice requires more attention because clinical ethicists bring a variety of academic backgrounds and qualifications, some of which may lack sufficient focus on outcomes of patient care. They suggest that "ethics consultants who have a primary clinical discipline" such as medicine or nursing are more attuned to advocating for patients and "may perceive a different degree or kind of accountability for what happens to the patient" compared to ethics consultants with nonclinical backgrounds such as philosophy (Weise and Daly 2014, 36).