2025 Summer Seminar in Healthcare Ethics

Target Audience

Summer Seminar is directed to physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, attorneys, teachers, surgeons, anesthesiologists, surgical nurses, physician assistants, social workers, hospital administrators, and other professionals involved in the care of patients or the education of providers.

Summer Seminar Course Descriptions and Objectives

SUMMER SEMINAR COURSE DESCRIPTION

Lectures are designed to familiarize participants with basic definitions and arguments in major topics of clinical ethics. The course aims to provide participants with skills and information to enable them to make competent ethical decisions in clinical situations and to assist others in doing so. Hence, careful attention is paid to methods of case analysis and to discussion of cases. Summer Seminar has always attracted a mix of participants that resembles the actual participants in clinical care, making it possible to share different, but complementary views.

REQUIRED TEXT: Clinical Ethics 9th edition*

*earlier editions are acceptable

OBJECTIVES

Identify fundamental concepts and principles for the understanding of ethical issues in clinical care
Implement a method for analyzing ethical cases in clinical health care
Employ skills in decision-making for clinical cases that present ethical problems
Discuss current issues and cases in health care ethics

Tentative schedule coming soon!

Fees, Registration and CME Accreditation

Fees & Registration

The cost of the 3.5-day conference is $500. See below for possible discounts.

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL: $400

GROUP RATES: please email bhconted@uw.edu for group discount information.

20% off groups of 15

15% off groups of 10

10% off groups of 5

Continuing Education Credit Fees are up to $45 (optional) and will be collected AFTER the event by the CME office directly. Additional instructions will be sent out to participants after the conference.

CME Accreditation

The University of Washington School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The University of Washington School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum of 19.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Scholarship Opportunities

The Department of Bioethics & Humanities at the University of Washington School of Medicine is proud to offer scholarship to the 37^th Annual Summer Seminar in Healthcare Ethics in honor of Dr. Al Jonsen, the founder of Summer Seminar and Dr. Tom McCormick, the Co-Chair for almost two decades. Scholarships will be awarded to professionals who would like to attend the Summer Seminar in Healthcare Ethics virtual conference, but are not able to because of financial hardship or other constraints. More information is TBA.

Special Services

The University of Washington is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, activities, education, and employment for individuals with disabilities. To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at least ten days in advance. Disability Services Office:

206.543.6450/Voice
206.543.6452/TTY
206.685.7264/Fax
e-mail: dso@uw.edu

If you’d like to request that the conference provide any accommodation, please email bhinfo@uw.edu.

Surgical Ethics Conference

The Surgical Ethics Conference

The Department of Surgery hosts a sister event, the annual Surgical Ethics Conference. This hybrid conference employs the methods of ethical analysis taught in the Summer Seminar to analyze topics of special interest to surgeons, surgical residents & fellows, anesthesiologists, surgical nurses, physician assistants, social workers, and hospital administrators. The conference additionally introduces participants to skills and information sufficient to enable them to make competent ethical decisions in clinical situations. The conference format incorporates live and asynchronous content tailored to surgical specialties. The conference introduces ethical principles and concepts, lectures on surgical ethics topics, and offers multi-disciplinary small group discussions designed to allow participants to better understand the ethical debates that bear upon each topic. Information on this year's conference is to be announced.

Faculty

Summer Seminar has a new program director!

Noa T Brazg, PhD, MSW, MPH, Director; University of Washington Health Sciences Interprofessional Education; Ethics Consultant, UWMC