When patients can’t decide for themselves, we rely on surrogates to decide on their behalf. However, clinicians often face the challenge of caring for patients who have no available surrogates. How do we make decisions for patients when the patients’ values and goals are unknown? This talk explores the ethics of decision-making for patients who lack surrogate decision-makers or have decision-makers who are unfamiliar with the patients’ goals and values. Drawing on case studies and bioethics theories, this talk establishes the importance of avoiding paternalism, establishing thoughtful policies, and ensuring patients who lack decision-makers receive appropriate medical care.
Learning Objectives: After this webinar, attendees will be able to:
Identify the ethical challenges of caring for unrepresented patients.
Explore potential solutions at the bedside and system policy level.
Apply solutions to cases in a diverse surrogate decision-making legal landscape.
Speaker: Jaime Konerman-Sease, PhD, HEC-C, is a Clinical Ethics Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics. She is a member of the team at the Center for Bioethics that provides clinical ethics services for the MHealth Fairview System. Her role includes clinical ethics consultation, policy development, and education for all hospitals in the MHealth Fairview system. Additionally, she is a member of the UMMC Ethics Committee.
Dr. Konerman-Sease’s academic work focuses on Disability Bioethics, Medicine and Literature, and Religious Bioethics. By drawing from historical sources, she highlights novel solutions to modern-day health care problems. Her current project draws on the novels of Jane Austen to provide solutions to the marginalization of patients with chronic and incurable illnesses in Medicine. Her future work will continue to focus on the intersection of Medicine, Literature, Theology and Disability.
Dr. Konerman-Sease completed her PhD in Health Care Ethics and Theology at Saint Louis University in 2022. Konerman-Sease was a 2020-2021 Student Intern for Ethics and Theology at CommonSpirit Health, where she assisted in clinical ethics consultation, policy development, and scarce resource allocation. She received the 2023 Emerging Scholar Award from the Institute on Theology and Disability for her doctoral work on chronic illness, Jane Austen, and Christian theology.
Event start time: 12:00 pm
Event end time: 01:00 pm
For more information visit: https://bioethics.umn.edu/events/unrepresented-ethics-caring-patients-without-surrogates