Clinical Ethics Fellowship

The aim of the Wellstar Fellowship in Clinical Ethics is to promote advanced competencies in our fellows such that graduates are prepared for employment as clinical ethicists or ethics program leaders in a variety of healthcare settings.

This one-year, full-time, in-person, non-ACGME program is designed to offer the necessary training for graduates to be able to deliver quality ethics consultation and engage in other fundamental clinical ethics activities.

Our training is based on the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) Core Competencies for Healthcare Ethics Consultation and the most current competencies and milestones identified within the field.

• Fellows rotate on Wellstar’s high-volume Ethics Consultation Service across nine hospitals, three inpatient hospice facilities, three skilled nursing facilities, and numerous outpatient sites for 28 weeks and 12 weekends. These Wellstar sites are spread out across metro Atlanta and the surrounding areas.

• Fellows train under ten Clinical Ethicists, most of whom are fellowship-trained and all of whom are HEC-C certified. Fellows begin in a role of observer, and gradually move into the roles of active learner with direct supervision, active learner with indirect supervision, and independent practitioner. Most fellows achieve independence at 10 months.

• Fellows rotate with a number of other clinical services in order to strengthen their understanding of the spectrum of healthcare delivery. External rotations may include advance care planning outpatient; care coordination; chief nursing officer; emergency department; emergency medical services; family medicine outpatient; home health; hospice; hospital medicine; ICU; inpatient psychiatry; labor & delivery; palliative care; patient experience; surgery; speech; spiritual health; and vice president of medical affairs.

• Fellows round regularly alongside Clinical Ethicist staff in ICUs and other hospital units.

• Fellows are expected to take and pass the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) HEC-C certification exam before the end of the fellowship to become a certified healthcare Ethics Consultant.

• Fellows participate in on-site, formal skills training with professional actors. Fellows also receive training alongside Ethics Program staff from national clinical ethics experts in areas such as communication skills, moral distress support, mediation, and conflict management (opportunities vary each year).

For more information, please see https://www.wellstar.org/about-us/ethics-program/fellowship.