Annual Conference

ASBH22 ConfBan 1242x170

Preconference Sessions*

To register for one of the sessions listed below, add them to your conference registration package today! If you have already registered for the Annual Conference, call ASBH Member Services at 847.375.4745 to add the session(s) to your registration. 

All preconference workshops will take place at the Courtyard Portland Downtown/Convention Center.

Mediation Workshop Series 

Wednesday, October 26, 2–4 pm and 4:30–6:30 pm  

Ethics consultation requires ethicists and other stakeholders to navigate several complex forms of communication, from difficult conversations with patients and their families to collaborations with fellow staff members and ethics committees. Learn to communicate more effectively, diffuse conflicts, and build trust through this two-part workshop series. Each workshop will present tools and data about effective communication in addition to interactive exercises and small-group activities.  

You may choose to attend both workshops or one that best meets your interests.  

Mediation Workshop: Conflict Resolution Skills for Ethics Committees (001)  

Wednesday, October 26, 2–4 pm  
Haavi Morreim, JD PhD  

Often, ethics consults stem not from moral puzzlement but from conflict: staff tensions about a complex situation, a “difficult” patient, or intra-family feuds. Here, the optimal consult usually is not opining about ethics, but resolving conflict: exploring the situation, learning the back-stories that fuel the conflict, helping people articulate their most important priorities, and forging a mutually agreeable plan. Ethics committees and consultants must be prepared to discern what approaches and resources will best suit each consult. This workshop teaches clinical conflict resolution, including negotiation, facilitation, and assisted negotiation. The workshop begins by presenting a key tool set of skills, such as: mirroring, managing expectations, affect labeling, normalizing, active listening, and probing for detail. These core techniques help build the trust on which successful resolution relies, thereby enabling those in conflict to come to their own workable agreements. Practice scenarios are interwoven so participants can gain comfort in using each skill. The workshop culminates in a two-part exercise focused on a complex problem of family dynamics. 

Extra-Cost Event
$80 Member/$105 Nonmember/$35 Student

Mediation Workshop: Managing Challenging Conversations: Advanced Facilitation Skills for Clinical Ethics Consultation (002)  

Wednesday, October 26, 4:30–6:30 pm  
Autumn Fiester, PhD 

While mastery of multi-party facilitation is one of the core competencies for ethics consultation, many ethics consultants have not been trained in facilitation techniques. Empirical data show that the majority of clinical ethicists in the United States hold group meetings with clinical staff, patients, and families as part of an ethics consult, even though many have not had formal training in group facilitation techniques. Having skills-based knowledge in approaches to group interaction is especially important when tensions in the group are running high and members of the group are experiencing anger, frustration, burnout, or moral distress. This workshop will provide facilitation foundational training by teaching group management; strategies to manage difficult and contentious conversations among and between the clinical team, family members, and patients; and pitfalls to avoid that can cause a group meeting to fail. Participants will master advanced facilitation through a combination of didactic presentations, question and response activities, and small-group activities. 

Extra-Cost Event
$80 Member/$105 Nonmember/$35 Student

HEC-C Review Course (003)  

Wednesday, October 26, 3–6:30 pm 
ASBH Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs Committee members: Virginia Bartlett, PhD, Chair; Trevor Bibler, PhD HEC-C, Vice Chair; Amy DeBaets, PhD HEC-C; Gavin Enck, PhD HEC-C; Amanda Hine, PhD HEC-C; Pramita Kuruvilla, MD HEC-C; Jason Wasserman, PhD HEC-C; Laura Webster, DBE RN HEC-C

Developed and presented by ASBH Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs Committee members, this updated review course will provide a solid foundation for those interested in or planning to or take the Healthcare Ethic Consultant-Certified (HEC-C) Examination. The course will be highly interactive, with enhanced sample questions used to provide attendees an opportunity to test their knowledge and connect information with the HEC-C Examination content outline, knowledge statements, and core references as a review framework. The 3.5-hour session will include discussion and practice test questions for each of the following: 

  • Healthcare Ethics Issues and Concepts: Big Picture  
  • Healthcare Ethics Issues and Concepts: Clinical Encounters  
  • Healthcare Systems and Health Law 
  • Clinical Context  
  • Local Healthcare Organizations and Policies  

Each attendee will receive an PDF version of the 2020 HEC-C Study Guide prior to the session.  

Extra-Cost Event
$110 Member/$160 Nonmember/$55 Student 

Improv for Equity (004) 

Wednesday, October 26, 3:30–6:30 pm 
Gitanjli Arora, MD; Katie Watson, JD; Rachel Rusch, LCSW; Bryon Stewart 

Improvisation (improv) is a well-defined technique in theater arts with application to health care. In practice, it requires spontaneity and authenticity, yet to reach this goal it teaches an underlying skill set that empowers scene partners to trust and communicate with one another to co-create a narrative in the moment. “Medical improv” is an adaptation that applies the tenets of improv to medical education and practice. Medical improv recognizes that health practitioners must have the agility to listen and respond in the moment, think creatively and collaboratively, and work within trusted partnerships with patients and colleagues. Through skill building and exploration of improv themes, this interactive workshop will apply the medical improv framework to health equity. Improv for Equity will cultivate an awareness of self and others with a focus on the stakes and power differentials of health care, and the goal of improving our ability to serve and empower historically marginalized and minoritized patients. Through improv, participants will consider the limitations of individual perspectives and biases, and expand their acceptance of the patient’s expertise about their own body and values. 

Extra-Cost Event
$110 Member/$160 Nonmember/$55 Student 

Register today for the 2022 ASBH Conference and these preconference sessions! For those that have already registered, contact ASBH Member Services at 847.375.4745 to add the session(s) to your registration. 

*All times listed are Pacific Daylight Time (PDT).