ESO-SEMM Master in Ethical Counseling in Oncology
Not eligible for ESCO credits
27.10.2014 - 29.10.2014
Milan, Italy
MASTERCLASS
Description
Scientific Directors: G. Boniolo, IT - R. Malacrida, CH
The daily activity of a cancer hospital is fraught with ethical controversies and difficult decisions to be made by researchers, clinicians, patients and caregivers. Frequently, these issues become entangled in moral values, religious beliefs, legal constraints, professional duties and medical guidelines, which add further layers of complexity to biomedical decision-making. As a consequence, those who have to choose could be in a sort of ethical decisional paralysis.
This situation has brought about the need of services for ethics support. Within this new and expanding landscape, we are proposing a Master in Ethical counseling in oncology aimed at providing participants with conceptual and practical tools for promoting - and dealing with – clinicians and patients’ ethical concerns.
The Master resorts to the tradition of the ethical critical thinking and is based on the idea that an ethical counselor is a mediator between the ethical knowledge and the patient’s or the clinician’s needs, in order to help them to take the right choices for the patient’s well-being.
A good and correct ethical counseling could be extremely important and helpful, without relieving oncologists from their responsibility or weakening patients’ autonomy.
In pursuing this approach, the Master in Ethical counseling in oncology will draw the attention on the specific issues potentially arising from collaborative professional-patient relationships. Contributions from many European experts, working on a sustainable transition to patient-centred and participatory medicine, will be the central training of the Master.
The Master in Ethical counseling in oncology is thus expected to attract professionals and analysts from the oncological sector, including physicians, nurses, counsellors, social workers and patients’ representatives. Our expectation is that of enriching participants’ understanding of cutting-edge controversies regarding the renegotiation of individuals’ - both patients and professionals – roles in the field of oncology. Most importantly, however, the Master in Ethical counseling in oncology wants to represent a unique opportunity for confrontation among all the participants, and will encourage their mutual exchange of ideas and suggestions.
If the enhanced role of oncological patients in the near future has to be regarded as a desirable goal, it is fundamental to recognise the importance of paving the way to its practical implementation. To the understanding and critical appraisal of this noble ideal, this three-day Master will devote all of its efforts.
Giovanni Boniolo
TOPICS
• Ethical counseling for oncological patients and clinicians
• Basic and foundational principles of biomedical ethics
• Basic and foundational principles of critical thinking in medicine
• Medical communication to oncological patients
TARGET
• Health care professionals (physicians especially oncologists, pathologists and geneticists)
• Nurses
• Bioethicists
• Counselors
The daily activity of a cancer hospital is fraught with ethical controversies and difficult decisions to be made by researchers, clinicians, patients and caregivers. Frequently, these issues become entangled in moral values, religious beliefs, legal constraints, professional duties and medical guidelines, which add further layers of complexity to biomedical decision-making. As a consequence, those who have to choose could be in a sort of ethical decisional paralysis.
This situation has brought about the need of services for ethics support. Within this new and expanding landscape, we are proposing a Master in Ethical counseling in oncology aimed at providing participants with conceptual and practical tools for promoting - and dealing with – clinicians and patients’ ethical concerns.
The Master resorts to the tradition of the ethical critical thinking and is based on the idea that an ethical counselor is a mediator between the ethical knowledge and the patient’s or the clinician’s needs, in order to help them to take the right choices for the patient’s well-being.
A good and correct ethical counseling could be extremely important and helpful, without relieving oncologists from their responsibility or weakening patients’ autonomy.
In pursuing this approach, the Master in Ethical counseling in oncology will draw the attention on the specific issues potentially arising from collaborative professional-patient relationships. Contributions from many European experts, working on a sustainable transition to patient-centred and participatory medicine, will be the central training of the Master.
The Master in Ethical counseling in oncology is thus expected to attract professionals and analysts from the oncological sector, including physicians, nurses, counsellors, social workers and patients’ representatives. Our expectation is that of enriching participants’ understanding of cutting-edge controversies regarding the renegotiation of individuals’ - both patients and professionals – roles in the field of oncology. Most importantly, however, the Master in Ethical counseling in oncology wants to represent a unique opportunity for confrontation among all the participants, and will encourage their mutual exchange of ideas and suggestions.
If the enhanced role of oncological patients in the near future has to be regarded as a desirable goal, it is fundamental to recognise the importance of paving the way to its practical implementation. To the understanding and critical appraisal of this noble ideal, this three-day Master will devote all of its efforts.
Giovanni Boniolo
TOPICS
• Ethical counseling for oncological patients and clinicians
• Basic and foundational principles of biomedical ethics
• Basic and foundational principles of critical thinking in medicine
• Medical communication to oncological patients
TARGET
• Health care professionals (physicians especially oncologists, pathologists and geneticists)
• Nurses
• Bioethicists
• Counselors
| The Master in Ethical Counseling in Oncology is an ESO-SEMM joint event |  |
General information
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
The official language is English. No simultaneous translation will be provided.
VENUE
SEMM Foundation c/o IFOM-IEO Campus
Via Adamello 16
20139 Milan
Italy
INSURANCE
The organizers bear no responsibility for untoward events in relation with the participation in the Master. Participants are advised to take out their own personal and travel insurance coverage.
CONTACTS
Scientific Secretariat
Virginia Sanchini
virginia.sanchini@ieo.eu
Organising Secretariat
Sabrina Frata
events@semm.it
.
Faculty list
FACULTY
G. Bernegger, Osservatorio per le Medical Humanities, Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, CH
G. Boniolo, Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, University of Milano and Biomedical Humanities Unit, Department of Experimental Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, Milano, IT
A. Costa, European School of Oncology and Breast Unit of the Ospedali Pubblici del Ticino, Bellinzona, CH
R. Malacrida, Ethical Committee of the Accademia Svizzera di Scienze Mediche, Bellinzona, CH
F.A. Peccatori, Fertility and Procreation Unit, Division of Gynaecologic Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, Milano, IT
V. Sanchini, Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, University of Milano and Biomedical Humanities Unit, Department of Experimental Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, Milano, IT
A. Surbone, New York University, New York and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, US
D. Teira, Departamento de Lógica, Historia y Filosofía de la Ciencia, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, ES
P.A. Tengland, Health and Society, Malmö University, Malmö, SE
G. Testa, Biomedical Humanities Unit, Department of Experimental Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, Milano, IT
Programme
27 October
| CHAIR: G. BONIOLO, IT | ||
8:00 | Registration | |
8:30 | Opening | |
9:00 | Medical communication A. Surbone, US | |
10:15 | Break | |
| 10:30 | Oncological communication A. Surbone, US | |
11:45 | Bioethics: approaches and principles V. Sanchini, IT | |
13:15 | Light lunch | |
14:30 | Bioethics: dilemmas and disagreements V. Sanchini, IT | |
| 16:00 | Break | |
| 16:15 | Critical thinking in medicine: the grammar of the correct thinking | |
17:15 | Critical thinking in medicine: the construction of the good reasoning D. Teira, ES | |
| 18:15 | Discussion | |
28 October
| CHAIR: R. MALACRIDA, CH | ||
9:00 | Empowering oncological patients P.A. Tengland, SE | |
10:45 | Break | |
11:00 | From oncological expertise to participatory oncology | |
12:15 | Discussion | |
12:45 | Light lunch | |
| 14:30 | Medical humanities in oncology G. Bernegger, CH | |
| 16:00 | Break | |
| 16:15 | Ethical counseling in oncology G. Boniolo, IT | |
| 17:45 | Discussion | |
29 October
| CHAIR: F.A. PECCATORI, IT | ||
| 9:00 | Ethical counseling for oncological patients V. Sanchini, IT | |
10:00 | Ethical counseling for oncologists | |
11:00 | Break | |
11:15 | Discussion and general conclusions | |
12:15 | Closure G. Boniolo, IT | |
12:30 | Light lunch and end of the master | |