Surrogate decision making raises many ethical issues. In all settings, decisions regarding goals of care often must be made by either elected proxies or next-of-kin on behalf of patients. These conversations, often involving high stakes and occurring in high states of arousal, are rife with ethical concerns. This session will present a framework for recognizing and managing ethical considerations, including legal topics, cultural issues and self-awareness of implicit bias and assumptions, and offer a practical guide to conducting holistic, patient-centric and ethically sound meetings.

OBJECTIVES:
After attending the session, attendees will be able to:

1. Appraise challenges associated with Ethical Decision Making, including cultural differences, legal issues and implicit bias.
2. Identify opportunities for collaboration between Social Work Case Management and Palliative Care teams.
3. Demonstrate techniques used in conducting high stakes surrogate decision maker meetings.

1 HR: RN, SW, CCM ETHICS

PRESENTER:  Alixis Van Horn, RN, MSN, APRN, ACPHN