On Saturday, Feb. 21, the Johns Hopkins chapter of the
American Medical Students Association will be hosting an
ethics seminar for medical students titled Clinical
Challenges: A Practical Seminar.
According to the student organizers, the event is
designed to address subject areas that the group feels do
not receive enough attention in medical schools' academic
curricula. The format will be based on a case presentation
and role playing to provide students with an interactive
opportunity to practice dealing with challenging clinical
situations.
The seminar will focus on areas that require special
training in ethics and communication, such as end-of-life
decision making, breaking bad news, addressing organ
transplantation, cultural conflicts and issues at the
beginning of life.
An opening address will present the philosophical and
historical background of current standards of clinical
ethics. The speaker is Benjamin Wilfond, head of the
section on genetics and ethics in the Department of
Clinical Bioethics at the NIH Warren G. Magnuson Clinical
Center and head of the bioethics research section in the
medical genetics branch of the National Human Genome
Research Institute.
Following this lecture, participants will be divided
into small group sessions to learn practical ethics and
receive hands-on advice for particular situations.
Michael A. Williams, assistant professor of
neurology and
neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins with a joint appointment
in
Anesthesiology/Critical Care Medicine, will lead "Organ
Transplantation Conversations." Williams is a core faculty
member of the
JHU
Bioethics Institute and a faculty associate of the
School of Nursing. He is co-chair of the JHH Ethics
Committee and recently was named chair of the American
Academy of Neurology's Ethics, Law and Humanities
Committee.
"Issues at the End of Life/Withdrawal of Care" will be
led by Peter Terry, professor of
pulmonary
medicine in the School of Medicine and past chair of
the JHH Ethics Committee. Terry directs the ethics
education program at the School of Medicine and also
teaches ethics to the Department of Medicine house staff.
He holds joint appointments in the Department of
Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine and in the School
of Public Health.
The other group sessions will be "Issues at the
Beginning of Life," led by Marilee Allen, professor of
neonatology in the
Department of
Pediatrics; "Breaking Bad News to Families," led by
Rita Mastroianni, clinical nurse specialist at JHH; and
"Issues Involving Cultural Differences" (speaker to be
announced).
The seminar will take place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in
the Preclinical Teaching Building, East Baltimore campus.
Registration is required. To sign up, and for more
information, go to
www.vzavenue.net/~bsilverman/index.htm.
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