Preventive Ethics - National Center for Ethics in Health Care - US ...

Part II: Introduction to Preventive Ethics
Strong connections with other departments and services in the organization are also
important. The preventive ethics team should look for opportunities to share activities
and skills, and to work to achieve mutual goals. To build these kinds of cross-fertilizing
relationships, those responsible for preventive ethics should establish contacts with
representatives from other departments and/or arrange regular opportunities for knowledge
transfer.
Since preventive ethics is in essence a quality improvement activity, it’s particularly
important for the preventive ethics team to establish close working relationships with quality
management if it isn’t organized as a subgroup of QM. For example, preventive ethics could
include QM staff on the core team and attend select QM meetings to update the service on
preventive ethics activities. The QM staff can provide needed expertise to the preventive
ethics team, who in turn can advise and educate QM staff on ethical aspects of quality
problems.
The structure of an IntegratedEthics program is designed to promote and support
such relationships through a local IntegratedEthics Council responsible for bringing
together leaders from key offices and programs, including coordinators of the three core
IntegratedEthics functions (ethics consultation, preventive ethics, and ethical leadership),
and coordinating ethics-related activities across the organization.
Leadership support
Explicit leadership support is essential if the goals of preventive ethics are to be realized.
Ultimately, leaders are responsible for the success of all programs, and preventive ethics
is no exception. It’s leaders who establish organizational priorities and allocate resources
to support those priorities. Unless leaders support—and are perceived to support—the
preventive ethics function in a facility, the function cannot succeed.
Leaders at all levels and throughout the organization can and should support preventive
ethics in several ways:
• understand the scope and role of preventive ethics
• refer ethics issues to the preventive ethics team when appropriate
• encourage others to refer issues to the preventive ethics team
Leaders who supervise employees who are members of the preventive ethics core team
should also:
• include responsibilities of preventive ethics in staff performance plans
• recognize staff for their preventive ethics activities
Finally, top organization leadership—i.e., leaders at the executive leadership and midmanager
level—should:
• keep up to date on the activities of preventive ethics
• regularly update staff on those activities
• ensure that other critical success factors are in place as described below
• promote organizational learning by encouraging dissemination of ISSUES
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