The graduate certificate in Clinical Ethics (CE) is a program geared towards providing professionals from various health care disciplines with foundational knowledge of clinical ethics or to enhance the backgrounds of those already working with this field. The objectives of this program include providing the skills necessary to describe and apply essential ethical theories and methodology, participate in clinical ethics consults, recognize ethical quandaries and the various advisory functions that can be performed, gain knowledge about current bioethical controversies and how to manage them. Students can complete this certificate in as short as two semesters (1 year) or up to five semesters (2.5 years).
A graduate of the Certificate in Clinical Ethics program would be able to enhance their existing health care professional background so that they can more effectively fulfill their clinical ethics related responsibilities. At the end of this program, students will have obtained the foundational knowledge and skills identified in the Core Competencies of Health Care Ethics Consultation and necessary to pass the healthcare ethics consultant certified exam set by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (additional qualifications for the certification are required). The competencies and exam focus on moral reasoning and ethical theory, common health care ethics issues and concepts, ethical assessment skills, process skills related to clinical research design and methodologies, health care law, and ethical research and practice. Additional competencies in the assessment of factual information about healthcare ethics concerns, social and cultural contextual factors impacting cases, analysis of ethical issues and conflicts to be resolved, process alignment with health care ethics competencies, and the evaluation of outcomes and implications of ethics consults will need to be demonstrated.