Membership

2023 WVNEC Members

INFORMATION FOR 2024 MEMBERSHIP

Why would you want to join the West Virginia Network of Ethics Committees (WVNEC)? As always, WVNEC educational offerings prepare your staff to analyze and resolve ethical issues and conflict that arise in patient care. Application of this education improves patient, family, and staff satisfaction; is an antidote against staff moral distress and burnout; and allows you to proactively address issues to avoid legal action.

In 2024, WVNEC is continuing three initiatives started in 2023 that have received great feedback.

1. To ensure that WVNEC members are prepared to meet the 2023 Joint Commission (JC) standard for an “ethics process,” WVNEC is distributing a systematic process and a step-by-step guide for the process from first call to evaluation for staff to address ethical issues prone to conflict in patient care. Also, WVNEC is role modeling the use of this process in its webinars and annual symposium.
2. To facilitate staff participation in the WVNEC webinars, WVNEC institutional membership enables your staff to participate in WVNEC webinars at no cost for the 2023-2024 webinar series (continuing education credits are free for the webinar and are available at cost to those who want them for the symposium).
3. WVNEC is offering a new series, Ethical and Legal Issues in Health Care Decision-Making in West Virginia. This series has been extremely successful with over 125 participants at two webinars on this topic. The Winter Edition of the WVNEC Newsletter has an updated flow diagram on making decisions in West Virginia for patients who lack decision-making capacity. Changes in the law necessitated this update. Also, there are articles on resolving conflict over who should be the medical power of attorney representative and selection of the health care surrogate.

To prepare WVNEC members to understand and use the new advance directives and POST form and address moral distress and burnout, WVNEC will draw on its interdisciplinary panel of experts in ethics, law, medicine, nursing, social work, and pastoral care and do the following:

1. hold quarterly webinars;
2. address these topics in each WVNEC Newsletter which is published four times per year;
3. focus on these issues in its day-long 36^th Annual Symposium May 17, 2024 at the Stonewall Resort; and
4. respond to questions from members and assist with resolving ethical issues in patient care.

WVNEC is just as vibrant and interactive as ever. If you have let your membership lapse, this is the year to rejoin WVNEC. If you have never been a WVNEC member, strongly consider becoming one this year. If you have been a faithful WVNEC member, thank you and please continue to be one! In any event, please complete the form for 2024 WVNEC membership.

How to Join
The yearly membership dues will be $150 for institutions with annual gross revenues of less than $500,000 per year, $250 for those institutions with $600,000 to $5,000,000 per year, and $350 for those institutions in excess of $5,000,000 annual gross revenues. Individual membership will be $25. If you wish to join the Network for 2024, please completing an  Institutional Membership Form or an  Individual Membership Form and send along with your check payable to the West Virginia Network of Ethics Committees.