Developing an Evaluation Tool for Assessing Clinical Ethics Consultation Skills in Simulation Based Education: The...

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Medical Education
• Professional Development

Background:

• The American Society for Bioethics and Humanities established a quality attestation (QA) process for clinical ethics consultants.
• Assessing interpersonal skills presents a significant challenge within this QA framework.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and develop a method for evaluating the interpersonal skills of clinical ethics consultants.
• Introduce the Assessing Clinical Ethics Skills (ACES) tool as a solution for objective skill assessment.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Assessing Clinical Ethics Skills (ACES) tool, specifying observable behaviors for consultants in simulations.
• Utilizing videotaped case simulations and a trained rater for scoring consultant performance.
• Piloting the ACES tool to assess its feasibility and effectiveness.

Main Results:

• The ACES tool provides specific behavioral standards for evaluating clinical ethics consultants in simulated scenarios.
• The tool facilitates the demonstration of competence for QA portfolios.
• Initial piloting indicates the tool's potential to address the assessment challenge.

Conclusions:

• Case simulations, guided by the ACES tool, offer a viable approach to assessing clinical ethics consultants' interpersonal skills.
• The ACES tool supports the quality attestation process by providing a standardized evaluation method.
• This approach enhances the objective assessment of essential professional competencies in bioethics.