Description
This workshop will open with a short summary of military medical ethics (MME) and its relevance to the healthcare professions in the armed forces. MME has been in continual debate across ICMM Congresses and has had an increasing number of academic papers published on the subject1. MME covers topics in medical ethics that military professionals need to know2 and topics that healthcare professionals need to know around the potential clash of dual loyalty between the military and medical professions3.Education in ethics is best achieved through the application of knowledge in small group discussions around predictable ethical problems. We have developed a suite of scenarios in MME and the presentation of these scenarios as a pack of playing cards and a smartphone app2. They are based upon the themes within the ICRC/WMA/ICMM ‘Ethical Principles of Health Care in times of Armed Conflict and other Emergencies’4. Each scenario was developed through consensus workshops. The cards and the app have been used extensively since 2019 in face-to-face, hybrid, and virtual teaching environments. However, it was clear from this experience that a framework for ethical decision-making in MME is required.
We undertook a literature review and identified 4 examples; the principles listed by Beauchamp and Childress, a UK ‘4 Quadrant Model’, a framework taught at the ICMM Reference Centre on MME and the Humanitarian Healthcare Ethics Analysis Tool. Drawing on these, we propose 4 Step approach: Identify the issue, Analyse perspectives (patient, legal, clinical, societal), Fuse the findings, Decide what should be done. The workshop presents 6 scenarios for analysis in small groups and seeks feedback on the suitability of this framework against 5 criteria on a 5 point Likert scale: Acceptability, Suitability, Feasibility, Sustainability, Adaptability.
| Period | 7 Sept 2022 |
|---|---|
| Event title | International Committee of Military Medicine World Congress of Military Medicine |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Brussels, BelgiumShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |