Neonatal Ethics Teaching Program - Scenario Oriented Learning in Ethics: Critically Ill Newborn in the NICU

Abstract

Neonatal Ethics Teaching Program – Scenario Oriented Learning in Ethics (SOLE): Critically Ill Newborn in the NICU. SOLE uses standardized patients (SPs) as a teaching tool to impart knowledge on the principal and the 3 key competencies of the Neonatal Ethics Teaching Program that trainees are expected to acquire before completing their Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine (NPM) training at the University of Ottawa. Furthermore, this workshop provides trainees the opportunity to practice and learn how they would interact with a true patient in a given clinical scenario. The goal of this workshop is to help trainees show improvement in their communication skills and demonstrate appropriate application of ethical principles when they have to interact with parents in delicate, difficult, and ethically charged situations regarding their child. Trainees are encouraged to refer to a procedural form that outlines the steps they should follow during a one on one medical encounter and use the SP as a teaching tool. This SOLE is specific to the critically ill newborn in the NICU where trainees learn to distinguish the three parent rationales behind the question: “If my baby was yours, what would you do?” and explain the appropriate response to the parent question: “Have you done everything you can for my baby?”