Recordings from Fall Ethics Education Series 2022

The Vermont Ethics Network Fall 2022 Ethics Education Series dives into ethically complex cases and questions to expand your knowledge of bioethics. Recordings of all sessions are now available here.

Session 1

Patient Safety and the Dignity of Risk

Presented by: Adira Hulkower, JD MS, Chief of the Bioethics Consult Service at Montefiore in the Bronx

Hospitals have both a regulatory and ethical mandate to establish safe discharge plans for all patients. Through the lens of dignity of risk this session will provide a case-based exploration of how to expand conceptions of safety, risk and beneficence to better meet patient needs.

(This session was recorded on October 4th, 2022 via Zoom).

Session 2

Can Long Term Care Facilities Really Say NO to Taking Patients Back?

Presented by: Zail S. Berry, MD, MPH, FACP

Complex patient needs combined with staffing and bed shortages have placed increased strain on the system of care delivery. Examining how different sectors of the health care system have responded can shed light on how this quandary has come about and may suggest new ways to work toward meeting the multidimensional needs of these vulnerable patients and their families.

(This session was recorded on October 11th, 2022 via Zoom).

Session 3

Ethical Management of Clinician-Patient Conflict in the Hospital

Presented by: Tim Lahey MD, MMS.  Director Clinical Ethics, UVM Medical Center.

This session will provide a case-based discussion about the ethical uncertainty that arises when the hospital becomes the default setting to manage non-acute and chronic health needs.  Issues of behavior management, time off unit policies, discharge over objection and resource allocation will be addressed.

(This session was presented on October 19, 2022 via Zoom).

Session 4

Covert Medications:  Is this Ever Okay?

Presented by Bob Macauley, MD.  Director of the OHSU Doernbecher Bridges Program.  Former Director of the UVM Department of Ethics.

This session will explore the ethics of covert medications and contemplate a framework for when it may be permissible to surreptitiously give an incapacitated patient medications they have been declining.

(This session was presented on November 1, 2022 via Zoom).

Session 5

Mounting Pressure in the Emergency Department – Are there ethical and legal solutions?

Presented by Shireen Hart, JD. Shareholder and health law attorney for Primmer Piper Eggleston & Cramer PC.

This session will offer a case-based review and solution-oriented approach to navigating some of the common challenges currently encountered in emergency departments.

(This session was presented on November 9, 2022 via Zoom).

Session 6

Medical Professionalism & the “Hateful Patient”

Presented by William Nelson, MDiv, PhD, Director of the Ethics and Human Values Program and Professor in The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI), and Departments of Medical Education and Community and Family Medicine, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

What does it mean to be a health care professional?  Drawing from the famous 1978 article by James E. Grove, MD “Taking Care of the Hateful Patient”, this session will be an interactive discussion exploring contemporary challenges in care delivery and the importance of maintaining and exemplifying professionalism during stressful ethical tensions and resource constrained times.

(This session was presented on November 16, 2022 via Zoom).