Bearing the Burden of Clinical Ethics Consultation: Requests, Roles, and Responses

The continued evolution of clinical ethics has prompted extensive discussion about the roles clinical ethicists ought to assume in practice, with the discussion focusing largely on what these professionals bring to healthcare. The emotional impact of assuming such roles is less commonly considered despite the fact that clinical ethicists frequently navigate situations of ethical complexity and conflict. We recently interviewed 34 U.S. clinical ethicists about their experiences and learned that the desire to be helpful is resulting in these professionals assuming a wide range of roles and responsibilities. Furthermore, we found that clinical ethicists are regularly emotionally impacted by their work and that they often carry an emotional burden as a result of the roles they assume in patient care. In this article, we explore this burden and discuss what it reveals about the field of clinical ethics at this pivotal point in its development.