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Patient Information - Spiritual Care - Ethics, Beliefs and Medical Care subpage_title_arrow

Ethics, Beliefs and Medical Care

Your cultural, spiritual, and religious beliefs are at the center of your decisions about healthcare. Our chaplains have specialized training in understanding, supporting, and advocating for your beliefs and values. As part of the healthcare team, they help to ensure that your values, goals and beliefs are included in discussions about the medical care you are receiving.

Chaplains are also skilled in helping you plan for future medical care. They are happy to help you as you consider how your goals, values and beliefs might affect your choices about your treatment.

A chaplain serves on the hospital's Biomedical Ethics Committee to represent moral and religious values as ethical concerns are discussed.

A chaplain can help when you are:

  • frightened, lonely, anxiously waiting or in a crisis
  • adjusting to illness
  • receiving bad news
  • suffering physically, emotionally or spiritually
  • struggling with goals of treatment and ethical or moral decisions
  • experiencing changes in beliefs or sense of meaning and purpose
  • expressing gratitude for recovery or blessings
  • near the end of life, dying or grieving
  • requesting religious support, prayer, a ritual from a particular tradition or a copy of a particular religious scripture
Questions
Contact Us TodayIf you have any questions please contact us.
Related Information
Here are some extra materials that may help you.

Biomedical Ethics Committee

What is Biomedical Ethics?
Biomedical ethics is the study of problems that sometimes arise in patient care. For example, a person might be too sick to make decisions about treatment and family members might disagree about what should be done. Sometimes a person is unsure about the right thing to do and wants to talk about the options with someone who has studied about these things. Sometimes a person needs an advocate to be sure the care he/she receives is based on his/her values and beliefs.

Why do we have this committee?

  • To study ethical issues that patients, families and staff encounter
  • To write hospital policies that prevent ethical emergencies
  • To educate hospital staff about ethical issues
  • To provide ethics consultations when patients, families and staff need help resolving differences

Who serves on the Biomedical Ethics Committee?
The committee has people with different kinds of training so that many viewpoints and thoughts will be included in discussions. The Martha Jefferson committee includes nurses, doctors, administrators, chaplains, social workers, pharmacists, and community representatives such as lawyers and faith leaders.

What is an ethics consultation?
With the permission of the patient or her/his decision maker, trained members of the Biomedical Ethics committee facilitate conversations about difficult decisions. They review the case, discuss the choices for care, and help everyone involved seek the best decision for the patient. They help to identify, analyze and resolve the ethical conflicts. The goals of the consultation are:

  • To facilitate communication and ensure accurate information
  • To encourage shared decision making
  • To honor goals, values and beliefs in making treatment choices.
  • To protect the rights of patients and prevent harm

Trained ethics consultants are on call at all times.

Who may request an ethics consultation?
Any patient, family member or Martha Jefferson Hospital staff member involved in the care of the person may request an ethics consult.

How do I request an ethics consultation?
You may ask any staff member to contact the consultation team for you.