Ethics consultation in paediatric and adult emergency departments: an assessment of clinical, ethical, learning and resource needs.

Objective: We sought to understand ethics and education needs of emergency nurses and physicians in paediatric and adult emergency departments (EDs) in order to build ethics capacity and provide a foundation for the development of an ethics education programme.

Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional survey of all staff nurses and physicians in three tertiary care EDs. The survey tool, called Clinical Ethics Needs Assessment Survey, was pilot tested on a similar target audience for question content and clarity.