Educational Advantage

JERHRE has an advantage in the ethics education arena. Lecturing about what should be done is an ineffective way to change people's hearts and minds, much less their behavior. In contrast, JERHRE provides concepts and methods that learners can use to discover for themselves what should be done. In the process, learners discover that what they should do is synonymous with what is in their best interests. Such is the persuasive power of evidence-based ethical problem solving. The curriculum materials presented here are deliberately general so that the instructor can adapt them to any students, be they freshmen, ethics committee members, or senior investigators. Drawing on the concepts and methods presented in the eight articles in this issue, some useful skills of ethical problem solving can be developed.

This issue of JERHRE features themes of communicating values across cultures. These include cultures as diverse as tribal versus western, academe versus surrounding communities, and the cultures that come together as stakeholders in the creation of ethically acceptable management practices in long-term assisted care facilities.