Katarine Lee-Ameduri is a Clinical Ethicist at St. Boniface Hospital who is preparing to host monthly Ethics Education sessions over the next 10 months. These are a chance for front-line staff to learn about how ethics play a role in their job, but are open to the public, as well.
“The series is offered to health care professionals, but we also know that there aren’t a lot of opportunities for the public to learn about ethics, so we’ve opened it up and are providing the sessions over Zoom at different times to help encourage all those who want to attend,” explains Lee-Ameduri.
The topics for 2021-2022 are broad and include therapeutic relationships, ethics in a pandemic, ethics in long-term care and in end-of-life situations, among others. “Our health care workers are in situations every day that require them to think about these things,” continues Lee-Ameduri. “When they’re working with a patient, they’re treating their health, of course, but doing that while respecting their choices, their culture and their autonomy. This series will help them to navigate those situations.”
Last year was the first edition of the series and helped to shape this year’s offerings. “We know that workload in the health care system is very high right now,” confirms Lee-Ameduri. “That’s why we’re offering shorter sessions once a month instead of trying to free up staff to attend an all-day event. We hope with the virtual delivery, we’ll have even more participants.”
Lee-Ameduri, who has a law degree and an PhD in Clinical Ethics, is looking forward to the experience again this year. “I want people to attend because it’s great to hear other’s perspectives,” she says. “Ethics education transcends the health care environment. Other conflicts and social issues come up in our lives where this type of critical thinking is really helpful. For example, the pandemic has brought up a lot of questions for people.”
“The beauty of ethics is the chance to look at different scenarios from another perspective. That’s part of living in a society where we all have different beliefs,” she concludes. “The goal with this session is to provide tools for everyone and have some robust education and discussion.”
To find out more about the 2021-2022 Ethics Education Session, including a full list of sessions and registration information, please click here.
