Abstract
Ethical statements typically involve rules. All rules can vary in accuracy and specificity depending on the context to which they are applied. Codes of ethics often involve ethical rules that are written generally to cover the wide-ranging set of possible situations that any one member of the profession may encounter. But, despite being written generally, codes of ethics are applied to specific situations that professional members encounter. The application of general rules to specific contexts can sometimes be challenging and complex. Health care organizations have several options to help their employees behave ethically. One approach is to appoint a single ethics coordinator. In contrast, the dominant approach in most health care organizations is to develop an organizational ethics committee (Moon Pediatrics, 143(5), e20190659, 2019). Despite the popularity of the ethics committee in other professions, the extent to which organizations that provide applied behavior analysis services have established and operate ethics committees is unknown. Ethics coordinator roles and ethics committees both have benefits and drawbacks. This article reviews the benefits and drawbacks of appointing an ethics coordinator and establishing an ethics committee. And, for interested organizations, this article outlines the steps and considerations that organizations can use to guide the creation of an ethics committee.
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Editor’s Note
Although some agencies are busy changing the format of their service delivery and supervision of staff, we know that other agencies are not currently providing services and that leaders in these agencies now have unexpected time to reflect on how to improve quality of care when they return to the workplace. We have two outstanding peer-reviewed articles that we believe can support leaders who seek to improve ethical care in their agencies. The article by David Cox provides a detailed description of how agencies can develop an ethics committee. The article by Linda LeBlanc and colleagues provides a demonstration of an ethics committee and shares data on the most frequently occurring ethical concerns reported by their staff. Leaders working in agencies that do not currently have an ethics coordinator or an ethics committee can initiate dialogue with their staff about the value and process of developing an ethics committee to be responsive to staff, parent, and client concerns. Together, these articles can support the development of ethics committees to increase adherence to ethical codes and to promote ethical behavior in the workplace.
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Cox, D.J. A Guide to Establishing Ethics Committees in Behavioral Health Settings. Behav Analysis Practice 13, 939–949 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-020-00455-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-020-00455-6