Published on March 12, 2012 by William Nunnelley  

Samford University's Healthcare Ethics and Law Institute (HEAL) will examine "Moral Distress at the Bedside: A Role for Hospital Ethics Committees" during its annual conference Friday, April 13.

The conference--sponsored by Samford's McWhorter School of Pharmacy--is designed to help Alabama institutional ethics committees at all levels of development and expertise with some of today's most pressing health-care ethics and law issues and problems.  It will meet in Brock Forum of Dwight Beeson Hall at Samford from 8:25 a.m. until 3:45 p.m.

Visiting speakers will include John Lantos, M.D., director of the Children's Mercy Bioethics Center, Children's Mercy Hospital, and professor of pediatrics, University of Missouri at Kansas City; David Brushwood, R.Ph. and J.D., professor of pharmaceutical outcomes, University of Florida College of Pharmacy; and Joy Hinson Penticuff, R.N. and Ph.D., professor and founding director of the baccalaureate nursing program at Concordia University of Texas.

Jack Nelson, J.D., LL.M., professor at Samford's Cumberland School of law, and Bruce White, D.O. and J.D., director of HEAL, will also speak.

Lantos and Brushwood will receive Pellegrino Medals for their contributions to healthcare ethics. The medal is named for Dr. Edmund D. Pellegrino, the first recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. The medal has been presented to world renowned clinical ethicists over the 11 years of the Institute's existence. Penticuff received a Pellegrino Medal in 2010.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.