Clinical Ethicist

How would you like to work in a place where your contributions and ideas are valued? A place where you can serve with compassion, pursue excellence and honor every voice? At Wellstar, our mission is simple, yet powerful: to enhance the health and well‑being of every person we serve. We are proud to have become a shining example of what’s possible when the brightest professionals dedicate themselves to making a difference in the healthcare industry, and in people’s lives.

Job Summary

The Clinical Ethicist is an active member of the ethics program at Well Star Health System performing clinical ethics consultation, ethics education and ethics policy development and review. The Ethics Program enjoys robust institutional support and is a leader in the field of clinical, organizational and research ethics. The health system is creating a fully integrated, collaborative approach to addressing ethical issues, and the clinical ethicist is key to developing this initiative.

The individual reports directly to the leadership team for the Ethics Program.

Core Responsibilities And Essential Functions Ethics Consultation

• Respond to health system ethics consultation requests and conduct individual ethics consults and facilitate team consults.
• Analyze and improve ethics consultation methods.
• Work closely with the healthcare team at his or her facility to familiarize them with the consult service and build trust.
• Develop and implement bedside ethics rounding within the health system.
• Provide ongoing training, education and evaluation of consult service members.
• Attend ethics case review meetings every other week and prepare literature for review.
• Maintain case records, documentation of case consults in patient medical record and ethics consultation database.
• Participate in ethics consultation service night and weekend coverage.
• Assist in the development of ethics consultation services within Well Star Health System.

Ethics Education

• Plan, deliver and evaluate ethics education for health care providers, residents, students and community.
• Develop and implement education materials for ethics committee members.
• Help develop innovative approaches to distance learning, including website and online strategies to enhance and/or supplement more conventional learning styles.
• Contribute to ethics educational efforts, including on‑site formal and informal presentations, regional and local guided discussions, conference planning, and the preparation of presentations, written materials, training tools and webinars.
• Develop and implement ethics curricula for the full range of clinical and non‑clinical employees.
• Contribute to the education and development of ethics research assistants, interns and fellows.

Ethics Programming and Evaluation

• Develop and contribute to ethics programming across the health system.
• Contribute to the evaluation of the Ethics Department and the ethics consultation service for quality improvement.
• Attend local committees (e.g., mortality, P&T, LOS) to contribute an ethical perspective to ongoing work within local sites.

Ethics Policy Development and Revision

• Review and revise system policies and guidelines as they relate to the Ethics Program.
• Ensure local and system compliance with accreditation and agency standards pertaining to clinical ethics, organizational and research ethics.

Ethics Research and Research Ethics

• Conduct collaborative and independent ethics scholarship with dissemination of work through publication and presentations.
• Develop, implement and evaluate the Ethics Assessment Survey, including administration, modifications, question development and testing, validation of findings, comparisons to other health system data, and evaluation of results.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Complies with all Wellstar Health System policies, standards of work, and code of conduct.

Required

Minimum Education

• Bachelor’s Degree
• Master’s Degree in applicable field (e.g., ethics, law, social work, theology)
• Doctorate / Terminal Degree in applicable field

Required Minimum License(s) And Certification(s)

All certifications are required upon hire unless otherwise stated.

Required Minimum Experience

• Minimum 1 year experience working in…