Corinna Klingler¹, Solveig Lena Hansen²

¹ Institute for Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

² Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen

Duration: 180 min

Background: Ethics teaching in the health professions aims to equip students with the ability to act in an ethically reflective and responsible manner in their professional practice. Whilst the content, competencies and curricula of health ethics are widely discussed, one key dimension has so far been largely overlooked: the ethical reflection on the teaching process itself. Questions concerning responsibility, power imbalances, fairness, care, setting boundaries, stress or potential harm in teaching-learning relationships are rarely addressed systematically in higher education. We refer to this gap as the ‘ethics of ethics teaching in the health professions’ (EELG).

The workshop is based on the assumption that ethics teaching has an impact not only through its content, but also, in a particular way, through the concrete actions of the lecturers. Lecturers shape learning processes through communication, decision-making practices, and their handling of sensitive topics, performance assessment and students’ individual stress situations. In the health professions in particular, teaching-learning relationships are often characterised by structural power asymmetries and, at the same time, are thematically linked to existential, morally challenging questions. In this respect, they bear parallels to professional relationships within the healthcare sector itself. Nevertheless, there are as yet hardly any established formats in which teachers can jointly reflect on these ethical challenges in their teaching practice, systematically categorise them and take them seriously as subjects of ethical analysis.

Aims of the workshop: The aim of the workshop is to highlight the ethics of ethics teaching as a distinct ethical field and to create a practical space for reflection. The workshop has three objectives:

1. the joint exploration of what can be understood as ethical issues and areas of conflict in the teaching of ethics,
2. structured reflection on specific cases drawn from participants’ own teaching and learning practices,
3. to identify needs for research, professional development and further development in the field of ethics education.

Workshop programme: Methodologically, the workshop is designed to be dialogical, interactive and experience-based, and lasts 180 minutes including a break.

The planned programme is as follows:

• Introduction and round of introductions (15 minutes)
• Brainstorming and structuring of ethical topics in ethics teaching (45 minutes)
• Introduction to peer case consultation and case selection (15 minutes)
• Peer case consultation, including a break (60 minutes)
• Final reflection and application phase (45 minutes)

During the introductory and presentation phase, the objectives, schedule and working methods are clearly outlined, and participants’ expectations are noted. Subsequently, in a facilitated brainstorming session, participants gather ethically challenging situations from their own teaching practice and jointly identify key thematic areas of the EELG.

Building on this, the peer case consultation forms the core of the workshop. The selection of a case is made from the group, and the case is then discussed in accordance with the peer case consultation model. This format is particularly well-suited to ethical reflection on professional practice, as it is based on equality, clarity of roles, a diversity of perspectives and a focus on intersubjective understanding; it can also be implemented in higher education settings, for example within peer supervision groups. In a clearly structured process with defined roles (case presenter, counsellor, facilitator), cases (whether experienced or observed) from the participants’ everyday teaching and learning situations are addressed. The process comprises a structured case presentation with the formulation of an open-ended case question, a phase of clarifying questions to ensure understanding, the joint development of interpretations and perspectives, and the formulation of possible courses of action, which are then reflected back to the person presenting the case.

A concluding phase of reflection and application provides space to develop perspectives on addressing key ethical dilemmas in ethics teaching, as well as gaps in the research landscape. Among other things, the discussion will address the extent to which individual case solutions come up against structural limitations, the role that formal guidelines or codes of conduct might play, and which empirical approaches would be suitable for systematically investigating the as yet little-researched practice of ethics teaching. The workshop will also address the extent to which peer-led case consultation constitutes a suitable form of discussing ethical conflicts in a teaching context, or whether other approaches (possibly drawn from clinical ethics) might be more appropriate. The workshop is therefore also intended to provide impetus for further research, networking and professional development in the field of EELG.

Target audience: The workshop is aimed at lecturers and students; participants from both groups may take part as case presenters and/or counsellors.