Happy Ethics Week!
As part of our Ethics Week celebration, we’re excited to highlight the role ethics plays in various areas across the organization with a feature called “Faces of Ethics.” Ethics is for everyone, and together, we can make decisions that matter.
Northwest Regional Renal Program
1) What does your department do?
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre North West Regional Renal Program provides a wide range of services to people living in Northwestern Ontario with kidney disease. This includes education, decision making support and treatment provided in the Multi-Care Kidney Clinic, in the dialysis units (TBRHSC & satellite units in Fort Frances, Sioux Lookout and Kenora), to our patients utilizing home modalities of dialysis across the Northwest, as well as pre and post transplant, and living kidney donation care. The goal is to provide the right care at the right time for our patients, knowing that their needs will change at the different stages of kidney disease. For that reason, our services are customized to each person’s needs.
2) What kind of ethical issues come up in your area?
Throughout a persons experience with kidney disease there are a number of decisions or experiences that can happen which bring up ethical dilemmas for staff, patients and families. Some areas have included: Respect of autonomy (eg. Consent/capacity, withdrawal of care); Non-maleficence/beneficence (eg. balancing risks/benefits for vulnerable groups, impact of comorbidities); Moral/Religious and Spiritual dilemmas; and Justice (eg. equity of access to care based on social determinants of health).
Ethics Affects Us All. If you’re facing an ethical dilemma or have questions, reach out to the Bioethicist, or a member of the ethics committee for support.
Bioethicist: Michelle Allain – michelle.allain@tbh.net | 807-630-0406