News from the Ethics Educators Special Interest Group

News from the Ethics Educators Special Interest Group

Date held: Thursday, November 11, 2021 ● 2:00 pm Eastern

Chair: Erik Mothersbaugh (ICO)

Vice Chair: Kevin Helmuth (AZCOPT)

2021 Ethics Essay Contest Updates

Alcon agreed to sponsor this contest for another year. The SIG members had a lengthy discussion on the format of the contest and desire to get more participation in submissions. Suggestions for alternatives to a traditional written essay included: audio (e.g., podcast-style storytelling), visual (e.g., slide deck), and audio-visual (e.g., video or slides with voiceover). Members of the SIG agreed that technology alternatives could make it easier and more exciting for students to participate but comes at the risk of making fair assessment/determination of a winner more challenging if submissions come in multiple formats.

At the end of the discussion, it was determined that based on the timeframe for submission window (11/29/2021-02/18/2022) the contest should remain in its current format for another year, and the SIG may follow up with a special-topic meeting in Spring 2022 to discuss further.

Open Discussion: Ethical Implications of Vaccine Mandates

SIG members engaged in open discussion on the topic of vaccine mandates with the following prompt:

• In an institution of higher education
  • Are regular testing alternatives acceptable? If so, which one(s)? And who should cover the cost?
• In an optometric clinical setting
  • Can an OD refuse care to a patient on the basis of vaccination status? Should they?

Members shared ideas with one another in a format similar to how many of us interact with students in our roles as Ethics Educators.