Thank you for visiting the Nevada Center for Ethics & Health Policy (NCEHP) website.
As a University of Nevdada, Reno, statewide program, NCEHP is an educational resource to students, professionals and consumers about current issues ranging from pain management, embryonic stem cell research, genetics, organ donation, resource allocation, assisted suicide, ethical decision making, end of life care, and others.
Our mission is to promote ethical and appropriate health care for all Nevadans through education, research and outreach. We offer the program in Health Care Ethics (HCE) composed of an undergraduate minor (20 credits) and a graduate certificate in bioethics (14 credits). We focus on applied research such as the use of advance health care directives, end of life care, bereavement, and storytelling. The Center began in 1999 through a $450,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which enabled us to form a statewide coalition composed of the Office of the Attorney General, University of Nevada, Reno/Nevada System of Higher Education, Cooperative Extension, Nevada State Medical Association, HealthInsight, Division for Aging Services, hospitals, hospices, state agencies, cultural, religious communities and some 70 partner organizations. In 2001, the state legislature provided an annual funding of $493,200 which enabled us to expand our programs and hire faculty and staff in Las Vegas. Together with the Gerontology Academic Program, we formed the Scholars in AGing and Ethics (SAGE) consortium to address ethical issues confronting our senior population. Some of NCEHP’s accomplishments from 1999 to 2005 include:
- Training of volunteers in 12 rural sites to provide better care for the dying
- Establishment of a multicultural end of life care coalition in Southern Nevada composed of some 25 organizations
- Presentation of ethics seminars to over 21,000 consumers and professionals including the National Association of Attorneys General, American College of Health Care Administrators and the United States Coalition of Aging, Inc.
- Development of formal ethics education to students, health care providers and state employees
For more information, feel free to give us a call at (775) 327-2309.
Cheers,
Noel Tiano, ThD, Director