Chairs
Current SIG Co-Chairs:
Catherine Shubkin, MD
The APA Ethics SIG is a group of individuals with an interest in the application of ethical theory in the context of clinical work, research, and teaching. It is a venue for sharing views and concerns about the impact of ethics in these settings in order to promote advances in physician ethics and professionalism.
Current SIG Goals
- To create discussion around current ethical dilemmas among ethics SIG members and PAS attendees
Annual Summary
Ethics SIG Workshop at PAS 2023: “Exploring the Ethics of Shared Decision-Making During Transitions of Care”
Transitioning young adults from pediatric to adult health care settings presents many challenges during a time that the models of medical decision-making are also shifting. Pediatric decision-making relies on the informed judgments of parents, who make medical decisions for children within the context of the family. Alternatively, adult decision-making shifts authority for decision-making to the patient. Standards of adult decision-making aim first to protect and promote the patient’s right to self-determination as an autonomous agent, and second, to promote the patient’s well-being, generally considered. Thus, the task of transitioning care requires that parents and clinicians assist adolescent patients in developing and practicing the skills required for autonomous decision-making, which includes understanding relevant information, reasoning with that information, and applying personal values and preferences to make an informed decision.
This Joint SIG Session (between the Ethics SIG and the Health Care Transitions SIG) discussed the implications of this shift in decision-making and explore, via both small and large group discussion, best practices that might guide clinicians, parents and patients. The session began with a brief presentation describing the standard models of decision-making for pediatric and adult medicine followed by a presentation of current models of transition care. Participants broke off into groups to discuss implications and best practices for transition of four populations: typically developing adolescents, adolescents with physical disabilities, adolescents with cognitive-developmental disabilities and adolescents with mental health diagnoses. Small groups then reported back to the large group via a facilitated discussion about how best to navigate the decision-making transition between adolescence and adulthood.
2023 Ethics Essay Contest Winners
The Ethics Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Academic Pediatric Association (APA) and the Section on Bioethics (SOB) of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) are pleased to sponsor the fourth annual joint Ethics Essay Contest, open to all residents in pediatrics or medicine-pediatrics, and all pediatric subspecialty fellows (including fellows in pediatric surgery, pediatric psychiatry, and pediatric neurology) in North America.
The winning essays were published in the AAP Section on Bioethics Winter Newsletter. Thank you to all who submitted essays, and congratulations to the following awardees:
1st Place: Tyler Clay, MD “Narrative Ethics in Pediatrics” (MedStar, Georgetown University Hospital)
2nd Place: Daniel Kim, MD “The Destination of Nowhere” (University of Washington)
Honorable Mention: Joseph DeBettencourt, MD “This Item is Not Reimburseable” (Lurie Children’s)
Other groups (other SIGs and other groups not in the APA) that work in your area of interest: ASBH, AAP Section on Bioethics
