Agenda

Conference Objectives
Moral distress is defined as knowing what is the right thing to do, but being unable to do it due to institutional, social or other barriers. This ground-breaking conference is designed to offer those working in healthcare an opportunity to:

  • Identify situations that cause moral distress in the healthcare workplace
  • Reflect on their own experiences
  • Discuss practical strategies for dealing with moral distress at the individual and organizational level
  • Explore how such situations can be turned into constructive opportunities to improve professional and therapeutic relationships

Who Should Attend?
The conference is open to all and will likely be of particular interest to healthcare providers – including nurses, physicians, social workers, spiritual care providers, psychologists and many other allied health professionals – as well as health administrators, policy-makers and members of clinical ethics committees. Members of the public are also encouraged to attend.

Agenda

8:15 am Continental Breakfast
8:45 am Opening Remarks & Introduction
Wendy Austin, University of Alberta
8:55 am – 9:15 am Catch-22: A Theatrical Presentation
9:15 am – 10:05 am Telling Your Story: Its OK to Talk About It
John Lantos, University of Chicago
10:05 am – 10:25 am Break
10:25 am – 11:15 am OK, I’m Distressed. What Now?
Dawn Oosterhoff, Ontario Medical Association
11:15 am – 12:15 pm World Café
Using an exciting format to stimulate dialogue, the World Café draws on the wisdom and diversity of conference participants with the aim of helping each other see new ways to make a difference in their work and lives.
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm

 Lunch
ARNET Global Mardi Party! Show your… Support for Alberta’s Registered Nurses! Twoonies for the Trust (Alberta Registered Nurses Educational Trust (ARNET))

Fun and Games will be hosted by ARNET. Be sure to bring your twoonies so you can participate and play. There will be a Global Mardi Party and Internationally Themed Gourmet Goodie Baskets for auction.

The Alberta Registered Nurses Educational Trust is a registered charity dedicated exclusively to assisting Alberta RNs to achieve their educational goals.
1:15 pm – 2:30 pm Concurrent Sessions
  1. Bird on an Ethics Wire: The Lived Experience of Moral Distress
    An Open Conversation with Participants
    Margaret Somerville, Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, McGill University
  2. Nurses’ Experience of Moral Distress:
    Surveying the Landscape
    Dawn Oosterhoff, Ontario Medical Association
  3. Moral Distress Among Families & Caregivers:
    A Personal Account
    Barbara Farlow, Canadian Patient Safety Institute
  4. The Flashlight & The Hammer:
    Tools & Metaphors for Grappling With Moral Tension
    Wendy Austin, University of Alberta
  5. Interprofessional Angst: When Nurse and
    Physician Don’t See Eye to Eye
    Daniel Garros, Stollery Children’s
    Hospital & University of Alberta
  6. Why Are We Doing This? Moral Distress and Futility
    Cynda Hylton Rushton, Johns Hopkins University
  7. If Huck Finn Were in the ICU: Moral Anxiety in Difficult Times
2:30 pm – 2:45 pm Break
2:45 pm – 3:40 pm Transforming Moral Distress into Healing
Cynda Hylton Rushton, Johns Hopkins University
3:40 pm – 4:30 pm Lessons in “Shared Ethics” from the Birds - A Vision for Morally Healthy Workspaces
Dr. Margaret Somerville