There are times that having to make healthcare decisions for yourself, for someone you love or for a patient you are taking care of can be very difficult. It may be hard to decide what is best for you to do. The word ‘ethics’ refers to the examination of our basic moral values and provides a guideline to help us understand what we should and should not do. When values conflict while making a decision, we can face an ethical dilemma.

 

The Ethics Service at Eastern Health can help you work through the ethical issues when faced with such a decision. We offer a comprehensive ethics service that includes ethics education, organizational policy review and development and ethics consultations on clinical and administrative matters. This service also features a network of ethics committees.

Eastern Health's Ethics Service has also been expanded to lead the Provincial Health Ethics Network Newfoundland Labrador (PHENNL). PHENNL coordinates and supports ethics education, ethics reviews (consultations) as well as the review and development of policies for the four regional health authorities and the Department of Health and Community Services.