CENNC Clinical Ethics Conference 2024: Where Ethics Meets Law

Medical and hospital staff often encounter ethical tensions in practice arising from understandings of relevant law, as well as from a variety of other sources such as institutional policy, risk avoidance, financial concerns, professional guidelines, and political influences. This highly interactive conference will examine these constraints using case presentation, small group discussion, lecture, expert panel interaction, and networking. We will invite you to explore strategies for navigating situations in which your professional and personal integrity are challenged by examining common and pressing issues arising at the intersections of ethics and law.

Through a combination of case presentation, small group participant case discussion, lecture, and expert panel discussion with participant Q&A; we will explore common situations that arise in clinical care arising from external constraints. These constraints may arise from law, institutional policy, risk avoidance, financial concerns, professional guidelines, and political influences. When the dictates of these constraints are in conflict with one another and/or with clinical standards of practice, clinicians may experience challenges to their professional and personal integrity. We will model how dialogue and discernment can help mitigate personal distress.

Objectives

• Identify external constraints on professional practice and personal integrity arising from sources such as law, institutional policy, risk avoidance, financial concerns, professional guidelines, and political influences.
• Recognize similarities and differences in how ethics and law address tensions arising in clinical practice.
• Be empowered to exercise conscious choice in determining when to work within external constraints and when to seek change.
• Recognize that diverse experiences and values held by their patients may lead to treatment requests that are different from those recommended by the medical team