What the HEC-C? An Analysis of the Healthcare Ethics Consultant-Certified Program: One Year in

Abstract

Efforts to professionalize the field of bioethics have led to the development of the Healthcare Ethics Consultant-Certified (HEC-C) Program intended to credential practicing healthcare ethics consultants (HCECs). Our team of professional ethicists participated in the inaugural process to support the professionalization efforts and inform our views on the value of this credential from the perspective of ethics consultants. In this paper, we explore the history that has led to this certification process, and evaluate the ability of the HEC-C Program to meet the goals it has set forth for HCECs. We describe the benefits and weaknesses of the program and offer constructive feedback on how the process might be strengthened, as well as share our team’s experience in preparing for the exam.     

What are the important visual features for coin discrimination?

Previous research has shown that memory for the surface detail of coins is poor. One explanation might be that gross features, such as size, colour and edging, are more important than surface detail when discriminating among coins and hence are more memorable. In a 2×4 within‐groups experiment, 33 participants visually identified coins in 128 coin pairs with surface detail present or obscured, and possibly one of three gross features also eliminated. While the presence of surface detail maintained very high accuracy, when only surface detail was eliminated and the other gross features were still present, participants' accuracy remained high. If surface detail and any gross feature were eliminated concomitantly, accuracy fell significantly. These findings indicate that both surface detail and gross features provide important information for coin discrimination in the real world, and that the gross features of a coin are not more important for visual discrimination than surface detail. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the formation of personal space and self-boundary structures in early human development: The case of infant stranger reactivity

Personal space and self-boundary are, respectively, sociological and intra-psychological concepts that refer to a complex of behavioral and subjective events between and within individuals. While there are large bodies of literature concerned with each of these concepts, literature that cuts across many disciplines of study, there has never been an integration of these concepts around specific human developmental issues. The present article focuses upon human infancy as a period in which both personal space and self-boundary phenomena can be observed. Developmental links between personal space and self-boundary phenomena in infancy and adulthood are outlined and discussed.