Abstract

The role of the clinical ethics consultant, the development of a clinical ethics program, and the practice of clinical ethics consultation was investigated, via an ethnographic research study, with nine healthcare professionals from a large, urban, tertiary care hospital. Descriptive information was ascertained from 16 interviews. ;The research in general involved the following steps: the selection of a sample of healthcare professionals who were involved with the clinical ethics program, the use of ethnographic interviews as the major mode of data collection, the continuous process of collection, coding, and analyzing the data; and, the generation of interpretive themes and descriptors of the role of the clinical ethics consultant from the collected data. ;The major issues of the research study are developed from descriptors, ascertained through interviews, regarding how the healthcare professionals interviewed understood and experienced: the clinical ethics program, the clinical ethics consultant, the personal and institutional needs related to the medical institution that the clinical ethics program and the clinical ethics consultants were expected to serve, and their professional experiences as related to the institutional expectations in terms of clinical ethical behaviors, beliefs and actions. ;The data are displayed in full transcripts and five data displays. The interpretive themes indicated a prevalence of descriptors identifiable as issues related to communication. The prevalence of relational issues is also compared to the respondent's limited discussion of medical-technical needs. Generative transferability is offered as a way to understand the appearance of the dialogical method in the interpretive themes of the respondents. ;Implications for future investigative research regarding the practices of the clinical ethics consultant, particularly communication practices, in the clinical environment is discussed. Finally, the related need to investigate further practices that are reported to be helpful to those served by the clinical ethics consultant is delineated. Various methodologies are offered as choices for these research designs