Health Care Ethics Consultation: An Update on Core Competencies and Emerging Standards from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities’ Core Competencies Update Task Force

Abstract

Ethics consultation has become an integral part of the fabric of U.S. health care delivery. This article summarizes the second edition of the Core Competencies for Health Care Ethics Consultation report of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. The core knowledge and skills competencies identified in the first edition of Core Competencies have been adopted by various ethics consultation services and education programs, providing evidence of their endorsement as health care ethics consultation (HCEC) standards. This revised report was prompted by thinking in the field that has evolved since the original report. Patients, family members, and health care providers who encounter ethical questions or concerns that ethics consultants could help address deserve access to efficient, effective, and accountable HCEC services. All individuals providing such services should be held to the standards of competence and quality described in the revised report.

Keywords:

• bioethics
• clinical ethics
• ethics consultation
• health care ethics

Acknowledgments

Ellen Fox and Kenneth A. Berkowitz are both employees of the National Center for Ethics in Health Care. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not represent the views of this organization or the U.S. government

Notes

^1. The ASBH Core Competencies Update Task Force Members are: Robert M. Arnold, University of Pittsburgh; Kenneth A. Berkowitz, National Center for Ethics in Health Care and NYU School of Medicine; Nancy Neveloff Dubler, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation; Denise Dudzinski, University of Washington School of Medicine; Ellen Fox, National Center for Ethics in Health Care; Andrea Frolic, Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University Medical Center; Jacqueline J. Glover, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; Kenneth Kipnis, University of Hawaii; Ann Marie Natali, Loyola University Chicago; William A. Nelson, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth; Mary V. Rorty, Stanford University; Paul M. Schyve, The Joint Commission; Joy D. Skeel, University of Toledo College of Medicine; and Anita J. Tarzian, University of Maryland Schools of Law and Nursing.