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Clinical Ethics: Support

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Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics

Abstract

Clinical ethics support services (CESS) are services that aim at supporting health-care professionals (including ancillary staff, managers, and directors), patients, and their families when being confronted with an ethical concern, question, or dilemma. CESS are increasingly being implemented in the USA, Canada, Europe, and slowly also within other parts of the world. Delivery of CESS is often categorized, broadly speaking, into three different models: clinical ethics committees (CEC), individual ethics consultants (EC), and facilitation of moral case deliberation (MCD). Strengths and weaknesses of these three models are discussed. Furthermore, attention is being paid to the ongoing debate on quality and training of CES. Finally, this entry ends with a brief summary on the current developments concerning the evaluation of CESS, CESS outcomes, and CESS’s impact on quality of care.

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  • Molewijk, B., Slowther, A. M., & Aulisio, M. (2011). The practical importance of theory in clinical ethics support services. Bioethics, 25(7), ii–iii (see the entire thematic issue of Bioethics).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Humanities, Free University medical centre (VUmc) EMGO+ (Quality of Care), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Bert Molewijk

  2. Centre for Medical Ethics, Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, 1130, Blindern, 0318, Oslo, Norway

    Bert Molewijk

  3. Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Anne Slowther

  4. Department of Bioethics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Mark Aulisio

  5. Center for Biomedical Ethics, MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Mark Aulisio

Authors
  1. Bert Molewijk
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  2. Anne Slowther
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  3. Mark Aulisio
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bert Molewijk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Healthcare Ethics, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Henk ten Have

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Molewijk, B., Slowther, A., Aulisio, M. (2016). Clinical Ethics: Support. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09483-0_87

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