Healthcare professionals are often confronted with ethically challenging situations. A sound ethics education is therefore indispensable. In view of the complexity of many medical-ethical questions, health-care institutions are also increasingly introducing ethics support structures. The SAMS offers guidelines and assistance.
Ethics education pursues two goals: on the one hand, that ethically sensitive situations are in the first place recognized as such, and on the other hand, to develop appropriate options for action. The SAMS has developed recommendations on ethics education and training for health professionals. These offer a comprehensive compilation of recommended learning contents.
The recommendations also address suitable examination formats, the transfer from theory to practice and the training of ethics lecturers. The importance of interprofessionality, as well as the relationship to law and communication skills are also deepened.
SAMS recommendations: Ethics training for health professionals (2019)
Certification in clinical ethics
Ethics support structures are now established in more than half of all Swiss hospitals. However, unlike in Germany, for example, there had been no structured and coordinated program for the certification of specialists in ethics consultation.
The Swiss Society for Biomedical Ethics (SGBE), as the national professional society, set out to develop a standardized, competency-based education and training curriculum and a pragmatic certification model. The program aims both to improve the quality of ethics support in the healthcare system and to enhance equity of access to these services.
In autumn 2026, the SGBE published a curriculum for clinical ethics on its website, providing a basis for the certification of specialists who have completed the corresponding education and training.
Swiss Society for Biomedical Ethics (SGBE)
Ethics support
«Ethics support» is the term used for all forms of the explicit development and promotion of ethical expertise, skills and attitudes which support decision-making in daily clinical practice, for instance in counselling in individual cases and in ethics committees. Ethics support tasks also encompass the drafting of ethical guidelines and the organisation of advanced- and further-training courses within a health-care institution. The Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS) has observed and promoted the further development of ethics support since 2002. However, it also evaluates this development critically and also published recommendations in 2012.
SAMS recommendations: Ethics support in medicine (2012)