Chaplains and Ethical Analysis

Rosemary Flanigan

July 8, 2009

If you had the chance to talk to chaplains-in-training, what would YOU talk about?

Every chance I get, I talk about how to do an “ethical analysis.” Chaplains seem to be the last great listeners in healthcare delivery today, but their “listening” can profit from some structure—and teaching them how different ethical theories structure their listening, then teaching them, with examples, how to use something like Potter’s Box for structuring their responses seems a good way to spend time with them.

Hopefully, ethics committee members, especially the consultation teams, should be able to do this like second nature. But how helpful it would be to have many other in-hospital groups develop the same way of thinking.

Often after an ethics committee meeting I wish everyone in the hospital could have been present!!