Healthcare ethical dilemmas are rarely black and white. The gray area, where different perspectives intersect, is where difficult questions arise. What can we do as healthcare professionals to have more clarity in these unsure situations?

Advancing ethical practice in healthcare requires grappling with difficult, often complex ethical problems and dilemmas. In this new forum, a diverse group of

image of brain with vendiagram highlighting the gray areas
ethicists, philosophers, nurses and other healthcare professionals will meet to address contemporary ethical issues in healthcare, and will discuss solutions to the most challenging problems for ethical practice and policy. Please see the current agenda to plan your conference experience.

The conference takes place at the Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort and Spa in Clearwater Beach, Florida. 

Call for Abstracts

The Carol Carfang Nursing & Healthcare Ethics Conference offers a unique opportunity to discuss contemporary ethical issues with distinguished ethicists, educators, philosophers and healthcare professionals interested in complex ethical issues in healthcare.

We invite submissions of abstracts for a 15–20 minute presentation and for posters that address any contemporary ethical issue in healthcare at the 2027 Carol Carfang Nursing and Healthcare Ethics Conference. The abstract may not exceed 300 words and must be formatted with one-inch margins in 12 pt. Times New Roman typeface.

Submit Abstract

Abstracts will be reviewed on a rolling basis, ending on October 15, 2026.

Conference Information

Program Schedule and Agenda

February 25, 2027
9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

It's Not their Story to Tell: The Ethics of Privacy of Healthcare Information

Anita Ho, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor

University of California, San Francisco Institute for Health & Aging
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

The Quest for Transhumanism: Ethical Implications

Michael Deem, PhD

Associate Professor and Interim Program Director, Multidisciplinary Master of Public Health and Faculty in Human Genetics and Center for Bioethics & Health Law, and Director, Consortium Ethics Program, Department of Medicine

University of Pittsburgh

Joseph Vukov, PhD

Associate Professor; Associate Director, The Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage

Loyola University of Chicago 

Sara Hendren, MDes. MA

Associate Professor in Art + Design with a joint appointment in the School of Architecture, College of Arts, Media and Design

Northeastern University
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Respecting the Person: Advancing Ethical Treatment for those with Disabilities

Laura Guidry-Grimes, PhD, HEC-C

Associate Staff Bioethicist, Cleveland Clinic, Center for Bioethics and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Clinical Assistant Professor of Bioethics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. Lunch (Provided)
1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Concurrent Sessions (TBD)
3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

The Migrant Experience: One of Human Dignity or Dehumanization

Allison Squires, PhD, RN, FAAN

Professor

New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing

** Moving to Yale University in January 2026
February 26, 2027
9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

Mentoring Nurses and Other Clinicians to Address Ethical Challenges in Healthcare Practice and Policy 

Aimee Milliken, PhD, RN, HEC-C, 

Associate Professor of Practice

Boston College Connell School of Nursing
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Session TBD
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Addressing Racism in Healthcare: The Impact of Injustice

Ashley Fernandes, PhD, MD

Associate Director of Center for Bioethics and Director of Professional Competency

The Ohio State University College of Medicine

 Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. Lunch (Provided)
1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Concurrent Sessions (TBD)
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

The Anti-Science Movement: Who Benefits? Who Suffers?

Sudip Parikh, PhD 

Chief Executive Officer of the American Association of the Advancement of Science

and Executive Publisher, Science Journals 

Call for Abstracts

The Carol Carfang Nursing & Healthcare Ethics Conference offers a unique opportunity to discuss contemporary ethical issues with distinguished ethicists, educators, philosophers and healthcare professionals interested in complex ethical issues in healthcare.

We invite submissions of abstracts for a 15–20 minute presentation and for posters that address any contemporary ethical issue in healthcare at the 2027 Carol Carfang Nursing and Healthcare Ethics Conference. The abstract may not exceed 300 words and must be formatted with one-inch margins in 12 pt. Times New Roman typeface.

Potential topics, both general and specific:

  • Healthcare Inequity
  • Institutional Ethics
  • Harm Reduction
  • Moral Distress and Moral Injury
  • Distributive Justice
  • Race and Gender Equity
  • Migrant Justice
    Submit Abstract

Abstracts will be reviewed on a rolling basis, ending on October 15, 2026.

Keynote Speakers and Presenters

The speakers for the 2027 Carol Carfang Nursing and Healthcare Ethics Conference have not yet been selected. Please check back for updates. 

Contact Hours

Contact hours will be offered for nursing:

  • Nine (9) contact hours for nursing, social work, and psychology will be available if the entirety of the conference (both Thursday and Friday) is attended and the evaluation is completed by the deadline noted on the disclosure form.
  • If only Thursday is attended, you will receive up to five (5) contact hours. If only Friday is attended, you will receive up to four (4) contact hours. Please note that the evaluation is required to receive any continuing education.
  • Duquesne University, School of Nursing is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation

Endorsed by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
The Carol Carfang Nursing and Healthcare Ethics Conference includes speakers, panels and presentations, as well as receptions and other opportunities to meet, greet and discuss with a wide array of professionals interested in healthcare ethics.

Hotel Information

Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort & Spa, Clearwater Beach, FL

We look forward to welcoming you to the Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort & Spa! The beachfront four-diamond resort offers 287 luxurious condo-style guest rooms with walkout balconies for water and sunset views.

Steps away from the powder-white sands of Clearwater Beach, the resort brings world-class style and amenities to the west coast of Florida. Balanced between the turquoise-blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the picturesque Intracoastal Waterway, Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort and Spa delivers an idyllic location on the new Clearwater Beach Walk, along with the sophistication, comfort, and convenience of a luxury resort.

See the complete resort fact sheet.

Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort & Spa
301 South Gulfview Blvd
Clearwater Beach, Florida 33767

Hotel General Info: (727) 373-1234

A hotel pool at sunset.

Reservations

Reservations for the 2027 Conference are not yet open. Please check back regularly for updates.

A Letter From the Chairs

Dear Conference Participants, Presenters and Sponsors,

We are delighted to welcome you, or welcome you back, to the fourth biennial Carol Carfang Nursing & Healthcare Ethics Conference. Over the next few days in beautiful Clearwater Beach, Florida, we will examine, reflect upon and confront the many difficult ethical and practical challenges that arise in healthcare today. Our presenters range from nurses to philosophers, physicians to clinical ethicists, and genetic counselors to health law and policy experts. Our conference program reflects the diversity and depth of ethical challenges across multiple areas of healthcare, and calls for collaboration in addressing them.

The School of Nursing at Duquesne University is committed to interdisciplinary education, scholarship, and the value of the humanistic aspects and ethical underpinnings of nursing practice. At the heart of our approach to educating future nurses, advanced practice nurses and nurse researchers is the conviction that clinical work is a moral enterprise. Excellence in nursing practice requires not only acuity of mind and clinical competence, but also a firm moral identity and a responsiveness to the numerous ethical challenges arising from clinical care.

At the Duquesne School of Nursing, we integrate ethics education into the curriculum—from our rigorous BSN program to our PhD in Nursing Ethics program—with the expectation that our graduates will excel as clinicians and as moral leaders in healthcare. The Carfang Conference is a natural extension of this conviction.

We thank you for participating in what we expect to be a vigorous and enlightening event, and we look forward to seeing you again in 2025 for the next Carol Carfang Nursing & Healthcare Conference.

Sincerely,

Mary Ellen Glasgow, Dean and Professor, Chair
Eric Vogelstein, Associate Professor and Director of Ethics for the School of Nursing, Co-Chair
Michael Deem, Associate Professor and Director of the Consortium Ethics Program, Co-Chair

 

 

Contact Us

Questions about registration and/or abstracts?

Jill Speer

Assistant to the Dean