The Division of Bioethics and Palliative Care has 3 primary areas of focus: clinical care, scholarship, and education. Clinical care is carried out through the Clinical Bioethics Consultation Service and the Clinical Palliative Care Service at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Scholarship is primarily conducted through the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics and Palliative Care at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. Education and training primarily occur via the University of Washington School of Medicine. Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are fundamental to all we do.
Our mission is to ensure each child, family, and community benefits from excellent, equitable healthcare and research centered on their needs and values.
Our vision is to use our inter-professional expertise in bioethics and palliative care to address complex challenges in pediatric healthcare and advance the well-being of children, families, and communities.
Equity, diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission and fundamental to all we do. We partner closely with the Seattle Children’s Hospital Center for Health Outcomes and with the Department of Pediatrics Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee.
The Clinical Palliative Care Service at Seattle Children’s Hospital provides specialized care for children who have a serious life-threatening or life-limiting illness and their families. We provide support for medical decision-making and communication as well as consultation regarding pain and symptom management. Our primary goal is to help improve the quality of life of children and their families. Palliative care can be appropriate for patients at any age and at any stage of a serious condition.
The Bioethics Consultation Service at Seattle Children’s Hospital offers advice and recommendations to families, clinical teams, and hospital leaders facing difficult decisions regarding the medical care of children. Bioethics consultants are trained in medical ethics and provide a forum for discussion and analysis of ethical uncertainty or areas of disagreements.
The Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics and Palliative Care at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute was the first program in the country to focus on pediatric bioethics issues and serves as a national resource for addressing the complex bioethical issues affecting families, healthcare institutions and society. In 2018, the Treuman Katz Center expanded its focus to include pediatric palliative care with the goal to improve quality of life, medical decision-making and communication for children with serious illness and their families. The Treuman Katz Center team is interdisciplinary with expertise in medicine, philosophy, law and the social and behavioral sciences.
Bioethics Fellowship
We are committed to training clinicians for academic careers in bioethics to ensure that the next generation of scholars, teachers and consultants are able engage in pediatric bioethics issues, and to encourage medical students and residents to consider careers in bioethics.
The two-year Clinical Bioethics Fellowship Program trains physicians in bioethics with an emphasis on pediatric issues in the clinical and research arenas. The goal of the fellowship is to prepare fellows for academic careers with an emphasis on scholarship in pediatric bioethics. Fellows conduct an independent research project, participate in clinical consultations and are expected to enroll in a master's program in the UW Department of Bioethics and Humanities.
Palliative Care Fellowship
The one-year University of Washington Palliative Medicine Fellowship trains 3-4 adult track fellows and 1-2 pediatric track fellows to become skilled clinicians and emerging leaders in the care of patients with serious and chronic illness. Fellows receive intensive, mentored training in clinical practice with additional exposure to research and quality improvement.
Pediatric Track fellows spend the majority of the fellowship year at Seattle Children’s Hospital, completing 9.5 months of pediatric focused palliative care training. This includes inpatient consultation, outpatient clinic, pediatric home hospice and palliative care through Providence Hospice at Home with Compassus, and pediatric rehabilitation. Fellows also rotate on two adult inpatient palliative care services (Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington) to broaden experience across diverse hospital settings and interdisciplinary team structures. An additional two-week adult hospice rotation ensures adequate exposure to hospice practice and experience caring for young adults at the end of life.
Ambulatory continuity training for pediatric fellows occurs in the Adult Oncology Palliative Care Clinic at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, which provides excellent opportunities to learn advanced symptom management.
PedsTalk
The Division of Bioethics and Palliative care is a proud supporter of PedsTalk: the UW Department of Pediatrics' communication training program, built on the nationally-acclaimed VitalTalk model and adapted for pediatrics. PedsTalk equips clinicians to facilitate honest, empathic conversations especially in the setting of serious illness. By strengthening communication skills, PedsTalk helps clinicians provide better care, reduce bias, promote trust, and reconnect with meaning and purpose in their work.
Jennifer C. Kett, MD, MA
Associate Professor Division Head Medical Director, Clinical Bioethics & Palliative Care
Arika Moore Patneaude, MSW, LICSW
Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Social Work Division Administrator Director, Bioethics & Palliative Care
Division of Bioethics and Palliative Care
M/S MB.5.605, PO Box 5371, Seattle, WA 98105
Bioethics_PalliativeCareAdmin@seattlechildrens.org