Katarina Lee-Ameduri has been a Clinical Ethicist at St. Boniface Hospital for seven years, and she’s certainly seen some shifts in her time there. Education sessions have always been a part of the Health Care Ethics Service, but lately, they’ve taken off in popularity, going from about 60 participants per session to some sessions with over 300 eager listeners.
“When the pandemic hit, Lydia Shawarsky, our administrative specialist, said she saw an opportunity,” explains Lee-Ameduri. “She thought that if we had to switch to a virtual format, we might as well put some effort in and see if we could reach more folks. She connected with a lot of people to grow awareness of our sessions, and it turns out, she was right: there was more demand than we realized.”
In 2024-2025, Lee-Ameduri and her colleague Cara Corvino, are scheduled to deliver 22 sessions on topics that appeal to folks in different areas. “I think one of the reasons it’s working so well is that it’s not sequential,” continues Lee-Ameduri. “It’s free, it’s virtual, you can pop in and out, you can choose a session that interests you. Some hospital employees receive some ethics training during their post-secondary education, but it’s not a lot and there’s not much continuing education available.”
Lee-Ameduri says that general ethics education can make an impact on everyone in a healthcare environment. “I believe that more ethics education equates to better care,” she affirms. “How do we have difficult conversations with patients? How do we talk to them about their values? How do you engage in disagreement with decision-makers? If everyone felt more equipped to deal with these situations, the end result would be patients who feel understood and supported, and staff who feel empowered.”
She also references research from bioethics programs that demonstrate that more ethics education can lead to reduced costs and time spent for busy healthcare professionals. “If someone is grappling with moving to palliative care, and they are having difficulty making a decision, they might require several meetings with their doctor, for example,” Lee-Ameduri continues. “If there was someone trained to be able to talk through that decision with the patient, that means less days in a hospital bed while the patient decides, and less back and forth with the doctor. Medical considerations are important for good healthcare decisions, but so are our values and how we feel about our treatment plan.”
The topics selected for the sessions are pulled from Lee-Ameduri’s experiences. “Today, I delivered a session on sexual relations in long-term care,” she shares. “I don’t proclaim to be an expert in any one situation, but myself or Cara can certainly speak to the consults that we deal with regularly, and that situation is definitely one of them. There is a long history and a strong philosophy behind the decisions that are made in healthcare, and these sessions are a chance to better understand that.”
Ultimately, Lee-Ameduri hopes that ethics education sessions contribute to improving organizational culture and most of all, patient care. “If you attend a session as a nurse, and then you’re back on your unit the next week, you might be more inclined to speak up with a new perspective,” she says. “Maybe they suggest a reframe on how something is communicated to patients, maybe they encourage an open conversation around a difficult topic, a different way to support a patient.”
In a dream world, Lee-Ameduri would teach herself out of a job. “If everyone working in health and social services had a better understanding of decision-making and difficult conversations, and could feel really comfortable with those on a day to day basis, I wouldn’t need to be here, and that would be ok! Education is where it starts. We’re so pleased with all this interest.”
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To learn about upcoming Ethics Education sessions, please click here.