How Bioethical Training is Essential to Patient Care:

 

A graduate and a current student of the Master of Arts in Bioethics program talk about ways they use bioethical training as part of patient care:

Lisa Hammon, associate director of the Medical Center’s Clinical Risk Management Department, was among the first class of students in 2009. She studied while working full time and received her degree in 2012. A registered nurse, Hammon has long been interested in bioethics. She has worked in surgical critical care, organ transplantation, and has served on the Clinical Ethics Committee since 1990.

“Risk management and ethics are partners in patient care at our hospital,” Hammon explained. “Our role in risk management is to engage hospital faculty and staff in identifying systems issues that result in preventable harm to patients and resolving these issues to reduce future harm. Our ethical mandate is truth-telling when an event occurs, including both disclosure and apology for medical errors. These are all part of our commitment to keep patients and families safe through our Safety Starts Here program.”

James Black, MD, a Lexington gynecologist, sees a burgeoning need for bioethical consultations as baby boomers swell the Medicare ranks. He sees his experience, combined with bioethical training, as a productive way to wind down his clinical career and transition to a second career teaching, writing and consulting about bioethics.

“I feel that I can bring to those consults some grassroots wisdom accumulated over many years of caring for local patients.”

 

 

 

Kristen Boswell Coggin MD (MA’12) is the youngest partner at Cape Fear Neonatology Associates, a 44-bed NICU at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville, NC.  Within the field of neonatology, she is one of a few in North Carolina with any formal training in bioethics.  Her MA in Bioethics makes her the “go to” person when ethical dilemmas arise, an “expert” status that urges her to continually advance her knowledge in bioethics.  Such “expert” status is fun and exciting, yet the intersection of neonatology and bioethics offers many challenges.  While some may turn the other way, Kristen walks directly into the ambiguous intersection, the precise place in which she had hoped to land.

Kristen has long had an interest in ethics and a desire to unite ethics with her profession.  Growing up in eastern North Carolina she received her undergraduate and medical degrees from East Carolina University, a school that embraces ethics education and makes bioethics an integral part of its curriculum.  At East Carolina University, Kristen was first introduced to Dr. John Moskop.  Dr. Moskop played a fundamental role in furthering Kristen’s interest in ethics and challenging her to stand in the intersection of neonatology and bioethics.  After completing her pediatric residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kristen wanted to delve further into the depths of bioethics and continue her studies with Dr. Moskop, who was now teaching in the Bioethics Master’s program at Wake Forest.  

Kristen completed her neonatology fellowship at Wake Forest University.  Most neonatology fellows traditionally fulfill the “scholarly activity “requirement through research; however, Kristen believed that a solid foundation in bioethics would best serve her professionally and personally.  Now in practice, and standing in the intersection of neonatology and bioethics, Kristen knows she made the right decision.  Kristen “believes wholeheartedly that [she] is a better physician for having completed [her] degree in bioethics because it allows [her] to practice both the art and science of medicine in a more comprehensive and thoughtful way.” 

Because of her degree from Wake Forest University, Kristen feels better equipped when she finds herself in the exciting, yet challenging, role as “expert.”  Kristen anticipates that advances in technology will increase the frequency of bioethical dilemmas in neonatology and that undoubtedly more questions of justice will arise.  As doctors are forced to consider whether something should be done simply because it can be done, Kristen hopes to stand alongside her peers and “be a leader – both in the asking and answering of such questions.”  Kristen believes that her background in bioethics will continue to provide a solid foundation as she stands in the intersection of bioethics and neonatology and makes the bioethical aspects of her work a priority in the provision of patient care.

Kristen resides in Fayetteville, NC with her husband Myers and daughter.       

 

Emily Hoppes graduated with her MA in Bioethics from Wake Forest University in 2011.  As a member of the Peace Corps, Emily lives in a tiny village in Tanzania with no electricity or running water, has learned to speak the local language, and attempts to fully integrate herself into the community.  Upon graduation, Emily was excited to take her new knowledge to Africa and apply it to the Peace Corps.  Once she arrived in Africa, however, she found the problems she had hoped to address were much more complicated.   As an avid blogger, Emily struggled to find the words to describe her experiences.  Yet, Emily notes, her bioethics education prepared her for such a complex task: analyzing and interpreting problems.  Emily quickly found that her bioethics education affected and influenced her everyday life in Africa because it taught her “to look at every angle, look through every lens, and leave nothing out, because that one small thing could make all the difference.”  Her MA in Bioethics helped her to document experiences and reflect on even the most extended problems.  Emily’s reflections stem from her identity as a MA in Bioethics graduate, a passionate Catholic, and a current Peace Corps volunteer.  Her reflections can be found at http://changehearts.tumblr.com/.  

Please click on the following link to read the review published by JAMA:  Bioethics, Public Moral Argument, And Social Responsiblity

Lisa Hammon, RN, BSN, MA, a recent graduate from the MA Program in Bioethics, has accepted an invitation to join the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) Professional Ethics Committee for a two year term starting in January 2013.

The ASHRM Professional Ethics Committee is charged with the following:  To investigate and make recommendations to the Board of Directors concerning issues of compliance with the Conflict of Interest policies of the Society as well as compliance with the Society’s Code of Professional Responsibility.