Identity Defined: Exploring the Formation of Professional Identity in Clinical Ethics

Abstract: Clinical ethics consultation (CEC) is the practice of using ethical principles and theories to engage in complex interventions with stakeholders to address moral and humanistic issues. Clinical ethics consultants are professionals who conduct CEC in a variety of healthcare settings. Even though the number of degree and fellowship programs in clinical ethics has increased over time, many clinical ethics consultants continue to enter the field serendipitously, having had little or no formal training in CEC. For decades, CEC lacked standards for education and credentialing. In 2018, the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) launched the first nationally recognized credential for CEC: the Healthcare Ethics Consultant-Certified, or HEC-C. The HEC-C program is a step toward the professionalization of CEC by setting minimum qualifying standards to sit for a certification exam. Professional identity formation is defined as a complex and transformational process of internalizing a profession’s core knowledge, skills, values, and beliefs, resulting in an individual thinking, acting, and feeling like a member of that professional community. Professional identity formation is regularly discussed in the health professions literature, particularly in medicine and nursing. However, professional identity formation in CEC is notably absent from the literature. This interdisciplinary panel will address the following questions regarding this emerging field: what is a clinical ethics consultant’s professional identity? How does CEC identity relate to other professional identities? What does professional identity formation look like in CEC? What strategies can be included in training and educational programs to foster professional identity formation in CEC?