Ethics Nova Scotia Health can provide input at any stage of the policy development process. In this blog post, we outline how we help policy developers and working groups with ethics input at different stages of the process.
It may be useful to reach out for ethics support early in the policy development process if you are developing or revising a ‘high stakes’ policy, e.g.:
At this stage, our team can assist with assessing policy options from an ethics lens. We can work with you to identify how well these options align with our organizational principles and values, as well as other relevant principles and values. Depending on the complexity of the policy (or the complexity of the related ethics issues), it may also help to include a member of Organizational Ethics and Policy Support on the policy development group.
It is not always easy to identify and weigh the principles and values that should inform a policy. We can assist policy working groups to identify and formulate relevant principles and values specific to the policy they are developing.
We can also support your group to facilitate a discussion if there is disagreement about how different values should be weighted within the policy, especially if some of these values are in tension with each other.
To help you determine the type of ethics support that may be most beneficial for your working group, or when to reach out to Ethics Nova Scotia Health for ethics support with a policy, visit:
How can Ethics Nova Scotia Health help you develop policies?
You can learn more about the role of ethics in health policy development in Nova Scotia Health Ethics Network’s (NSHEN) Fireside chat with Policy Manager, Michelle Helliwell. The video comes with a discussion and resource page, for use in facilitating discussions or for further reflection.
Another useful resource is NSHEN’s Ethics and Health Policy: The Nuts and Bolts. While this guide is written for a general audience and is not specific to Nova Scotia Health’s policy development process, it provides useful guidance around ensuring that the policy process is ethics-informed, including:
If you are sending out a draft policy for feedback, you may want to include Ethics Nova Scotia Health in the collaborating-partners feedback survey.
Organizational Ethics and Policy Support, a core function group with Ethics Nova Scotia Health, meets on the second Friday of each month. At these meetings, we review draft policies from an ethics lens. We summarize both general and section-specific feedback and highlight any potential ethical implications or concerns that the group may have. We are always happy to answer questions and are available to assist with implementing our feedback.
Please submit your policy review request according to our submission deadlines. Requestors can expect to receive feedback about one week after the meeting date.
For ethics input on a policy:
Complete our Ethics Input on Policy request form
Email: ethicssupport@nshealth.ca
For more information about ethics support:
Visit: Ethics Nova Scotia Health
Phone (toll-free): 1-833-392-1413
Ethics Program Manager, Ethics Nova Scotia Health
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