Doing What’s Right: Ethical Leadership and Moral Courage in EMS Decision-Making

We are faced with a multitude of “ethical dilemmas” in EMS more so than in any other area of healthcare – from on the scene patient care decisions to the workplace, business and financial decisions we make as leaders. These dilemmas are more pronounced in the post-COVID world of healthcare with the increased operational challenges we face. How we treat the weak, the vulnerable, the destitute, and the “easily taken advantage of” – says a lot about our EMS agency and ourselves as individuals. Making those tough ethical decisions takes courage and can be a challenge in the face of conflicting values and the difficult environment in which we operate.
In this session we will describe the science of ethics, the top ethical challenges we face as EMS leaders, and specific steps we can each take to ensure that we make the “right” decisions for our long-term success and the health and well-being of our patients and the communities we serve. We’ll review the “Seven Point Ethical Action Test” to help you develop the courage to make the often-difficult right choices in the face of conflicting pressures and adversity. We’ll wrap it up with a discussion on “compassionomics” and how providing compassionate care to patients not only improves the mental and physical well-being of both patients and caregivers – it actually improves patient outcomes and our financial bottom line.