“We’re so glad you’re here”: Exploring the ethicist’s role in community health settings
Friday, October 13, 2023
9:30 AM – 10:45 AM ET
Location: Heron (Fourth Floor)
‘Community engagement’ refers to “the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the wellbeing of those people.”1 Community engagement efforts on the part of healthcare professionals and academics can enhance understandings of the social determinants of health, facilitate the delivery of preventive care and foster trust between community stakeholders. Within bioethics, there is growing recognition of the importance of community engagement. Despite this—and the fact that ethics consultation is a well-established practice within hospitals—the ethicist’s role in community settings remains relatively unexplored.
In this presentation, we explore what community-engaged practice might look like for the ethicist. One of us (a clinical ethicist) shares her experience of being invited into a local community clinic where a team of volunteers, in partnership with a local church, seek to meet the needs and serve the health of unhoused persons in our county. We explore how the ethicists’ knowledge and skills translate into this new setting. We outline some of the key ethical issues we encounter in our clinic, including how to promote the agency of community members, develop education and training standards for clinic volunteers, and balance different values and priorities within the partnership. Given the range of ethical issues that arise in community health and the need for ongoing dialogue, education and critical reflection within such partnerships, we argue that there is a role for the ethicist in this space.
Laurie Farroni, DPT, PT, PCS – Associate Professor, School of Health Professions, University of Texas Medical Branch; Kathleen Murphy, DNP, RN, FAAN, – Professor, School of Nursing, University of Texas Medical Branch; Michael Gienger, MDiv – Pastor, N/A, Central United Methodist Church Galveston