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Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics pp 1–8Cite as

Clinical Ethics: Support

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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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References

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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, P.O. Box 1130, Blindern, NO-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. Duquesne University Center for Healthcare Ethics, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Henk ten Have

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Molewijk, B., Slowther, A., Aulisio, M. (2015). Clinical Ethics: Support. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_87-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_87-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-05544-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

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