Healthcare professionals caring for patients with serious illness frequently encounter challenging situations involving competing values, uncertainty, family disagreement, surrogate decision-making, and questions about appropriateness of aggressive treatments at the end of life. Clinical ethics consultation can help patients, families, and healthcare teams navigate these dilemmas by identifying ethical issues, facilitating communication, and supporting shared decision-making. In this interactive session, participants will explore common reasons ethics consultations are requested for this vulnerable patient population and discuss how clinical ethicists collaborate with palliative care and other members of the medical team to address complex patient care challenges. Through case-based discussion, participants will examine practical approaches to navigating ethical uncertainty and conflict in clinical practice when caring for patients at the end of life.
Dr. Shilpa Shashidhara is the Senior Clinical Ethicist for Sutter Health’s Program in Medicine and Human Values. She earned her PhD in Applied Gerontology from the University of North Texas and her MA in Bioethics and Medical Humanities from the University of South Florida. For the past 15 years, she has worked in clinical ethics, providing consultation, guidance, and support to patients, families, and healthcare professionals navigating complex healthcare decisions and challenging patient care situations. From 2022 to 2025, Dr. Shashidhara served on the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities Program Committee, including two years as Chair.