Findings from a European survey on current bioethics training activities in hospitals

While much work has been done on improving undergraduate education in bioethics, particularly in medicine, less has been said about continuing education of health care workers, particularly non-medical and nursing personnel. Hospitals bring together a variety of professional and non-professional groups in the place where clinical dilemmas are daily events, and would seem ideal places to conduct an ongoing bioethics dialogue. Yet evidence that this is being achieved is sparse. The European Hospital (-Based) Bioethics Program (EHBP) brings together both current and aspirant members of the EU as partners in a project that aims to assess the current situation with regard to bioethics education in hospitals, identify shortfalls, and address these. In order to achieve the first objective of the EHBP a survey of the current training activities (focused on activities in hospitals) in clinical bioethics in Europe was carried out. The results are presented in this paper, along with a discussion about the implications for the EHBP to address these issues.