Our Structure

Ethics Nova Scotia Health delivers comprehensive ethics support services within the Nova Scotia Health. It consists of three interconnected components: Local Ethics Teams, Zone Ethics Committees and the Ethics Leads Group:

  • Local Ethics Teams consist of ethics ‘point persons’ who identify and respond to local ethics needs in a variety of geographic areas and health care facilities/centers throughout the province. Their particular focus is on: 1) direct engagement in clinical ethics activities, and 2) the identification of local ethics education needs.
  • Zone Ethics Committees directly engage in, and provide oversight to, all health care ethics activities within their zone. Their particular emphases are: 1) the coordination of, and provision of support to, the clinical ethics activities of their zone’s Local Ethics Teams, and 2) the coordination and implementation of ethics education activities with their zone. In addition, they perform organizational ethics consultations that are of particular relevance to their zone (and not of relevance to all health authority zones), and they apply a ‘zonal lens’ to the development and review of authority-wide health policies with strong ethics elements.
  • The Ethics Leads Group consists of the chairs (or chair-designates) of the four Zone Ethics Committees and members of the Dalhousie University Department of Bioethics Ethics Collaborations Team. The Ethics Leads Group provides guidance and oversight to all of Ethics Nova Scotia Health’s activities and is directly engaged in: 1) the performance of organizational ethics consultations that arise and are of relevance to the whole health authority, and 2) the development and review of authority-wide health policies with strong ethics dimensions. In addition, the Ethics Leads Group identifies emerging, key health care ethics themes and trends that are brought to the attention of Nova Scotia Health’s Executive. The Ethics Leads Group reports directly to the Nova Scotia Health Vice-President for Quality, Systems Performance and Transformation, and it is accountable to the Nova Scotia Health Board of Directors.

The Nova Scotia Health Care Network (NSHEN)  provides primary ethics education support to Ethics Nova Scotia Health through: 1) the development and delivery of targeted educational sessions and workshops within the zones, and 2) the development of a variety of ethics educational materials and tools for use by health care providers, administrators, leaders and those who participate in ethics support activities.

The Ethics Collaborations Team, consisting of four faculty members of the Department of Bioethics in the Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine, provides advanced ethics leadership and support to all components and operations of Ethics NSHA.