The Independent Ethics Consultant: Joys and Practical Realities of Working for Yourself

Abstract: Significant scholarship exists about the role, responsibilities, and skills required of clinical ethics consultants working as staff in organizations. Fewer articles describe the role, experience, and practice management of the independent ethics consultant (IEC) (i.e., not staff for an organization). Bramstadt (2022) described her international experience in the role, but this scholarly approach may be less reflective of the lived experience of the typical individual looking to build and maintain an independent ethics consultation practice. Questions arise around getting a “foot in the door,” working with facility staff (including an organization’s ethics committee), managing access to patient records and data privacy, managing IEC practice records, quality control/peer review, billing, contracting, professional liability insurance, marketing, surviving hospital leadership changes and mergers, and a host of other items.

In this panel, three IECs with a combined 35+ years of lived experience performing independent clinical and organizational ethics consultations will discuss their experience initiating, developing, managing, and potentially selling an IEC practice. Speaker 1 will describe their experience providing clinical and research ethics consultation to both community and academic facilities across three counties. Speaker 2 will describe their experience developing a practice that includes a state-run psychiatric facility and diverse community organizations. Speaker 3 will describe their experience contracting with hospitals and public agencies (federal and county) to develop ethics (clinical and organizational) programs with an eye toward building ethics skills in organizational staff.