Clinical Ethics internship symposium

On Wednesday, September 4, the Ethics Quality Improvement (EQI) Lab at Osler hosted the first annual Clinical Ethics internship symposium. This inaugural symposium was created to highlight the EQI Lab’s Clinical Ethics internship program and to celebrate the contributions of the interns to learning, research and ethical decision making at Osler.

Osler’s Clinical Ethics internship program is one-of-a-kind in Canada and has a long history of supporting learners from a variety of professional and academic backgrounds, to learn about ethical decision making in health care. More recently, the Internship program has provided a forum to learn about ethics quality improvement, including the importance of change management and adaptive leadership. Each year, the EQI Lab welcomes a select cohort of learners who support education, policy, research, consultation and various projects led by the Ethics team. To date, the internship program has supported more than 30 interns and fellows who have gone on to be healthcare ethicists and leaders in related fields.

This year’s symposium was a hybrid event, which allowed for both in-person and virtual attendance for staff, physicians, patients, families and visitors to Osler. The interns delivered a presentation that highlighted their research contributions at a national bioethics conference, various publications and described the ways that they have supported staff, physician, patient and family ethics education during their time at Osler. Research contributions included the following topics: emotional responses to ethics consultations; Research Ethics Boards and artificial intelligence; proactive vs reactive approaches to clinical ethics; clinical ethics education models; and bioethics in pop culture.

Interns also took the opportunity to reflect on how the experience prepared them for future endeavours with continued education or career trajectories. They discussed how the skills and knowledge gained throughout the internship including critical thinking and interpersonal skills, have prepared them for work. This presentation provided a unique opportunity to showcase the exceptional dedication of this year’s cohort of interns. Following the presentation, the interns hosted a drop-in session where staff, physicians, patients, and families could meet the Ethics team, pick up some healthcare decision-making resources and learn more about how Ethics at Osler can support them.

The Clinical Ethics internship symposium promoted a sense of community and collaboration by encouraging dialogue between attendees and the Ethics team. It created an open forum for sharing learnings and resources and also reinforced the value of ethics in clinical practice while celebrating the interns achievements. Looking ahead, the EQI Lab hopes to continue building on the success of this event and of the Clinical Ethics internship program, towards further advancing leadership and quality in health care ethics.