The promise of a partnership on medical ethics with GHS

Dr. Kelly Smith

The Rutland Institute has launched a major new medical ethics initiative in partnership with the Greenville Hospital System.  GHS wants to develop an ethics education program, which brings the entire campus together within a shared mission and set of conceptual tools.  Dr. Kelly Smith, one of our Lemon Fellows, has been working intensively with GHS since the beginning of the summer to develop content and delivery methods for the new medical school curriculum, graduate medical education, and support services.  “This is a really fascinating challenge,” said Dr. Smith, “The opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new medical school is very rare and the administration of GHS is deeply committed to developing a student centered curriculum which is truly transformative.”

So far, our efforts have been focused on the medical school curriculum, since the first cohort of students began classes in September.  Dr. Smith is working closely with the directors of two of the required classes for the first year students: Drs. Wendy Cornett and Peggy Wagner.  Basic ethical content will be presented in the Medicine and Society class by Dr. Smith and two GHS physicians, Drs. Matthew Hindman and Mark O’Rourke.  Then students will practice applying their conceptual knowledge as they work through real clinical case studies under the supervision of a set of very gifted physician facilitators in the Clinical Diagnosis and Reasoning class.   We are also developing a series of “train the trainer” sessions for the leaders of the various graduate residency programs at the hospital.  Future plans include producing workshops for the leaders of the other units at GHS and developing new tools to objectively assess ethical judgment. As Dr. Smith put it, “It’s still early times, but we are very enthusiastic about the amazing opportunity this represents for all involved.”

Dr. Kelly C. Smith

C. Calhoun Lemon Fellow

Rutland Institiute for Ethics