Professional Conduct and Ethical Considerations for the Patient Advocate
Patient advocacy on behalf of patients already frustrated or poorly supported by the medical system provides constant opportunities for examining personal and professional ethics. Personal biases and conflicts of interest, if not scrupulously mitigated, can lead to professional ethical breaches that affect the advocacy relationship, the individual practice of patient advocacy, and the reputation of the nascent field of patient advocacy.
There are obvious conflicts of interest that are well-documented in patient advocacy, like prescribing or selling products or services from which the advocate may earn a commission or directing clients to certain providers or facilities that an advocate directly represents for financial gain. There are less obvious conflicts that arise in day to day practice from, for instance, blurring lines between professional practice and familiarity with a client and family.
The good news is that humans are capable of constant learning and growing, and we can learn to observe and manage bias and conflicts of interest by applying an ethics lens to the practice of patient advocacy.
Learning objectives:
- How to identify obvious ethical breaches, subtle biases and conflicts of interest.
- Tools for self-awareness of bias and conflict of interest.
- Suggestions to mitigate what will inevitably arise in practice.
Continuing Education Credits: 1.0 Ethics CE for Board Certified Patient Advocates through the Patient Advocate Certification Board.
Non-Member Purchase
You will receive an email, after checking out, with a unique passcode to input above enabling this webinar.
Continuing Education webinars are open to NAHAC members and the general public looking to enhance their knowledge and receive continuing education credit.
As a NAHAC benefit, Full Members are charged only $10.00 for a CE webinar while the general public pays $40.00 per CE credit webinar. NAHAC full members, who just want to view the webinars, can go to the NAHAC website to view the webinars at any time – no charge.
To receive the discounted NAHAC membership rate for CE webinars, access and complete an application here: Membership Form.
Members Only Purchase
You will recieve an email, after checking out, with a unique passcode to input above enabling this webinar.
Continuing Education webinars are open to NAHAC members and the general public looking to enhance their knowledge and receive continuing education credit.
Deborah Batson, BCPA
Deborah has spent many years observing the health care system inside and out, as patient, family member, caregiver as well as in roles in the administration of health care in a hospital setting: clinical data, ethics and research protocol review.
For years before becoming a board-certified patient advocate, Deborah informally helped people navigate their health care, researching conditions and connecting people with providers who can help. She has read, researched and interpreted countless studies and drug reports, and negotiated many medical bills and has worked with adults and children to support them during health crises.
In addition to founding her patient advocacy practice Patient Advocacy Partners, Deborah sits on the pediatric panel of an Institutional Review Board, where she reviews research study proposals involving children as subjects. She also serves on a hospital clinical ethics committee, helping to frame difficult questions for patients and clinicians.
Deborah is also the Chair of the Patient Advocate Certification Board's Ethics Committee. She also performs background research for a local health care activism group that considers housing and other economic disparities in health care.