Miles J. Edwards Chair in Professionalism and Comfort Care

Department Overview

OHSU Center for Ethics in Health Care was founded in 1989 with a clear and compelling purpose: to bring justice, compassion, and respect to every aspect of health care in our community.

The scope of the Center's work has expanded far beyond the early dreams of its founders, to include:

• Innovative education programs for current and future generations of health care professionals throughout the state
• A leading national role in transforming care at the end of life, in particular through the development of the ground-breaking Portable Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) program which is now available in most states nationwide as well as a number of other countries
• Policy change to address pressing issues such as conflict of interest and access to health care
• Research to support important health care reform

The OHSU Center for Ethics is a 36‑year‑old, nationally recognized, interprofessional group of individuals seeking to advance ethics in health care. The Edwards Chair is responsible for guiding and supporting the development of teaching about professionalism and ethics with students and trainees of selected OHSU schools and programs and to health care professionals in Oregon and nationally.

The appointee shall provide services as assigned by the supervisor in furtherance of the university’s missions and goals of teaching, research, patient care, outreach and public service. This position reports to:
Fabrice Jotterand, PhD, MA.

Please include CV, letter of intent and four references with your application.

• Guiding and supporting the development of teaching about professionalism and ethics with students and trainees of selected OHSU schools and programs and to health care professionals in Oregon and nationally.
• Teaching curricula on professionalism and comfort care to be included in selected OHSU schools and program courses, including the Living with Life-Threatening Illness course for medical students. Participation in teaching at other Center events.
• Facilitate the planning and lead the Oregon Bioethics & Humanities Colloquium (OBHC) series.
• Participate in the education of students, residents and fellows to become the next generation of ethics leaders for the Center, OHSU and the community.
• Mentoring junior faculty in professionalism, ethics and end‑of‑life comfort care knowledge and teaching leadership process skills.
• Modeling intercultural competence and employing innovative technology to enhance the educational effectiveness of campus‑based and distance teaching, learning and research.

• Engage in scholarly activities related to the field of professionalism and ethics issues related to end‑of‑life care, fulfilling all requirements for the ethical conduct of research, and complying with all rules, regulations and requirements of the sponsoring organization and OHSU.
• Assist in the translation of theory and research into practical usefulness in policy and patient care.
• Focus on primary research and development of educational and other translational resources regarding professionalism and clinical ethics issues related to end‑of‑life care, and on development of innovative educational and curricular materials for application across professions and care settings.
• Publish and share research findings by submitting and presenting abstracts and papers at local, regional, national, and international meetings.

• Serve on Center related committees and participate in key fundraising activities for the Center; participate in Ethics Center recruitment of faculty and staff; and other organizational activities.
• Partner with other schools to build interprofessional teaching opportunities on professionalism and comfort care.
• Participate in the development of educational grant proposals and subsequent implementation.

This is a 0.5 FTE position and requires that the individual have FTE in another department or program  successful candidate will have either:

• A doctoral degree in a health profession with a master's or doctoral degree in ethics, or
• A doctoral degree in ethics.

The candidate will be board certified in palliative care or have significant expertise in palliative care, including research and scholarship. The Chair's salary will be supported through endowments but there will be an expectation to seek support through grants, clinical FTE or other sources of funding.

The position includes duties in areas of teaching, scholarship, research, and service. The time allocation shown relates specifically to the 0.5 FTE chair responsibilities only. This position reports to the Center for Ethics in Health Care Director.

The academic rank of the applicant must be associate or full professor.