Senior Clinical Ethicist

Overview

Northside Hospital is award-winning, state-of-the-art, and continually growing. Constantly expanding the quality and reach of our care to our patients and communities creates even more opportunity for the best healthcare professionals in Atlanta and beyond. Discover all the possibilities of a career at Northside today.

Responsibilities

The Senior Clinical Ethicist is an experienced clinical ethicist who delivers expert level ethics consultations and provides leadership in collaboration, advanced clinical program development, quality measurement and improvement, and goal-directed education. They facilitate attainment of the Ethics Service strategic goals and work directly with care providers, professional staff, patients, families, and communities to facilitate decision-making and policy development in concert with Northside Hospital’s mission.

The Senior Clinical Ethicist independently performs complex ethics consultations across the system’s clinical locations, provides leadership in Ethics Service program development, and develops and leads initiatives to meet practice, educational and organizational goals of the Northside system. They are experienced in the performance of professional service quality assessment and provide data analysis for effectiveness of Clinical Ethics Service consults and initiatives. Under the direction of the Program Manager, the Senior Clinical Ethicist contributes to updates, expansion and development of organization policies and practice guidelines that align with national standards for ethics service excellence. 

All duties are performed in accordance with best practice and in concert with policies, procedures, and guidelines. Reporting to NSH Ethics Service Program Manager this position will support the Ethics Consultation Service serving Northside hospitals and all clinical sites within the system.

Responsible for

• Providing in-person expert level clinical ethics consultations for all patient populations across the organization; 7 days/week, 365 days/year.
• Organizing and leading clinical ethics rounds and care conferences; collaborating with multi-disciplinary clinical teams, patients, families, and leadership to address complex ethical issues in care delivery.
• Providing operational leadership in the planning, execution, outcome measurement and analysis of the Clinical Ethics Service consultations and special programs.

• Reviewing and analyzing Ethics Service consultation data to provide insight for quality improvement, practice change and opportunities for policy development or updates.
• Expanding and growing the clinical practice of the Ethics Service’s Clinical Ethicists and through education and mentorship.

Qualifications

REQUIRED

Master's degree or doctoral degree in ethics (healthcare, medical, bio), philosophy, theology or healthcare field; PhD, JD, MD, RN or other healthcare degree.

Post-Graduate Certificate in Bioethics from an accredited University Bioethics Program if Master’s degree or doctoral degree is NOT in ethics (healthcare, medical, bio)

Three (3) years of clinical experience in an acute care hospital in a clinical or similar role.

Two (2) years full-time experience in an acute-care hospital as a Clinical Ethicist conducting healthcare ethics case consultation, either as an individual ethics consultant or ethics consultation team member and leader.

Required: Certification as “Healthcare Ethics Consultant – Certified” (HEC-C) from American Society Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH).

In-depth knowledge and skills in clinical ethics, ethics case consultation methodologies, and consultation documentation. \

Demonstrated ability to effectively navigate within and document in Cerner or other similar electronic medical record on Ethics Consultations.

Knowledge of current federal, state and regulatory organizations whose mandates and guidelines impact ethics consultations; and experience in accessing current reports and documents.

Experience in ethics service consultation data collection for quality measurement and improvement. \

Demonstrated ability to lead clinical projects to achieve measurable results.

Evidence of excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Ability to work sensitively and professionally with patients and families as well as to work collaboratively with healthcare professionals across multiple disciplines.

Familiarity with developing ‘best-practice’ organizational policies, procedures and practice guidelines.

Proficient teaching skills, both to individuals and groups in formal and informal presentation settings.

Competency in Microsoft Office Suite Applications: Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint.

PREFERRED

Doctoral degree (PhD preferred) in bioethics, clinical ethics, nursing, healthcare or healthcare related field preferred; or, Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD).

Documented education and training in clinical (healthcare) mediation.

Minimum 5-years fulltime experience as a clinical ethicist in an acute care, multi-hospital system with diverse medical/clinical services and specialties.

Experience of performing/leading complex ethics case consultation of all age populations (neonates to elderly) at the request of multiple disciplines; including experience with requesting court appointed guardianship for patients, consultations involving federally protected populations and de-escalation of conflicts among patients, family members and staff.

Experience using a productivity measurement system specifically for clinical ethics service consultations.

Experience in providing Continuing Medical and/or Nursing Education Programs requiring continuing education program oversight for measured credit hours.

Competency in Microsoft Office Suite Applications: Excel and Access.

Experience in effective use Artificial Intelligence products to improve clinical consultation and documentation efficiency.

Experience in public speaking; creating and delivering clinical ethics presentations to professional audiences.

Work Hours:

8AM-5PM

Weekend Requirements:

Yes

On-Call Requirements:

Yes