Clinical ethics
The RACP Clinical Ethics Working Party have curated a set of resources to encourage Fellows and trainees to reflect on the role clinical ethics plays in their own practice and in their healthcare settings.
Professional development | Trainee education | Clinical ethics services | Study | Related content
RACP Clinical Ethics Position Statement
The RACP Clinical Ethics Position Statement 2020 (December 2020) recognises ethics as a fundamental part of health care and makes explicit the need for both education in clinical ethics for medical professionals, and for Clinical Ethics Support Services to be embedded within the health care systems of Australia and New Zealand. It advocates a more formalised approach to clinical ethics be adopted to better support practitioners in the contemporary health context.
Professional development
Every clinical encounter has an ethical dimension. Ethical reflection and analysis are an integral part of clinical practice and requires clinicians to have a strong foundation in ethical principles, reflection and reasoning. You can further develop your clinical ethics capacity and have it count towards your continuing professional development.
Curated Collections — Ethics | RACP Online Learning Resources (member login required)
Access peer-reviewed CPD resources on ethics.
Professional Skills — Ethics | RACP Online Learning Resources (member login required)
Broaden your understanding of ethics through this resource as you learn about, discuss and reflect on the main ethical issues facing physicians.
Podcasts
Pomegranate Health Ep37: Ethical Dilemmas — Congress 2018
As medicine becomes more sophisticated, discussions about clinical ethics become more common. It’s now possible to support life in dire clinical circumstances, but physicians are not always sure if this is the right thing to do. This episode centres around ethical decision-making in 2 case studies.
Pomegranate Health Ep59: Essential Ethics in Paediatrics
When can a child be said to have cognitive capacity and bodily autonomy? For those who don’t, where does the guardianship of the parent to give way to that of the medical professionals? These questions and more are discussed in 2 case studies from within the Children's Bioethics Centre in Melbourne.
Essential Ethics
The Essential Ethics podcast series is produced by the Children's Bioethics Centre at The Royal Children's Hospital (Melbourne, Australia). The series is hosted by Professor John Massie, a clinician and bioethicist at The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, and member of the RACP Ethics Committee. Essential Ethics presents discussion of challenging cases that come up when treating children. A range of topical and informative topics reflect current thinking and draw knowledge from the ethics toolkit.
Trainee education
Ethics is embedded in the Basic and Advanced Physician Training Programs through the Professional Practice Framework and Professional Qualities Curriculum (PDF).
In the Basic Training Program, trainees are required to undertake the Professional Skills — Ethics online course through RACP Online Learning Resources (member login required).
In the Advanced Training Program, program requirements are set by the Training Committees for all 35 programs. In the current curricula, Advanced Trainees are required to complete reflective exercises demonstrating competency in the Professional Qualities Curriculum.
Beyond the curricula, trainees at all levels are encouraged to develop their clinical ethics capacity.
Clinical ethics services
Healthcare delivery is becoming increasingly complex. On occasions, clinicians and healthcare organisations need access to appropriate guidance and support to help navigate these challenges. Increasingly, this support is being provided by various models of clinical ethics support locally and overseas.
Setting up a service
NHMRC Consensus Statement on Clinical Ethics
NHMRC Clinical Ethics Capacity Building Resource Manual
Support services
Australia
Services
South Eastern Sydney Local Health District — Clinical Ethics Service
Sydney Children's Hospital Network Clinical Ethics Service
Plunkett Centre for Ethics, St Vincent's Hospital
The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne — Clinical Ethics Service
ACT Health — Clinical Ethics Committee
Central Adelaide Local Health Network Clinical Ethics Committee: Health.CALHNClinicalEthicsCommittee@sa.gov.au
Publications
Medical Journal of Australia — The ethics of clinical ethics services
AJOB Empirical Bioethics — Developing clinical ethics support for an Australian Health Service: A survey of clinician’s experiences and views
Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management — Leading ethical decision-making: Clinical ethics services in Australia
Medical Journal of Australia — Is there a future for clinical ethics services in Australia?
NSW Health, Clinical Ethics Support Literature Review (PDF)
The Oxford Handbook of Health Care Management — Clinical Ethics Support in Contemporary Health Care
Aotearoa New Zealand
Clinical Ethics Support in Contemporary Health Care: Origins, Practices, and Evaluation (PDF)
The role of clinical ethics in the health care system of New Zealand
Clinical ethics support services in New Zealand — tailoring services to meet the needs of doctors (PDF)
Patient participation in clinical ethics support services — Patient-centred care, justice and cultural competence (PDF)
What are clinical ethics advisory groups for? (PDF)
International
Canada | Alberta Health Services — Clinical Ethics
Canada | British Columbia Children’s Hospital — Clinical Ethics
Canada | Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto
Canada | The Ottawa Hospital, Ethics Consultation Service
Canada | Québec, CIUSS West-Central Montreal — Clinical Ethics Service
Singapore | National University of Singapore Centre for Biomedical Ethics
USA | Brigham Health — Ethics Consultation Service
USA | Mayo Clinic Health System — Medical Ethics Consultations
USA | University of Illinois Hospital & Health Science System — Clinical Ethics Consult Service
USA | US Veterans Affairs — National Centre for Ethics in Health Care
UK | Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children — Clinical Ethics Service
UK | University of Oxford, ETHOX Centre — Ethics Support
Study
Academic studies
Columbia University, Bioethics
Deakin University, Health Law and Ethics
Harvard Medical School, Centre for Bioethics
Monash University, Bioethics
University of Notre Dame Australia, Master of Bioethics
University of Otago, Bioethics Centre
University of Sydney, Bioethics and Clinical Ethics
University of Washington School of Medicine, Ethics in Medicine
Research and Fellowships
Baylor College of Medicine, Clinical Ethics Fellowship
Cleveland Fellowship in Advanced Bioethics
Harvard Medical School, Fellowship in Bioethics
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Research Scholarship in Surgical Ethics
Seattle Children’s Hospital, Clinical Bioethics Fellowship
Stanford Medicine, Fellowship in Clinical Ethics
University Hospital in San Antonio, Clinical Ethics Fellowship
University of Pennsylvania, Biomedical Ethics Fellowship
University of Texas Anderson Cancer Centre, Clinical Ethics Fellowship
Weill Cornell Medicine, Fellowship in Clinical Ethics