Table 1.

Description of the Bioethics Unit’s activities and aims

Activity	Promoted by	Dedicated to	Description of the activity	Aim
RESEARCH	All the BU members or other services and wards	Other services and wards	Development, implementation and evaluation of research projects related to ethical issues of clinical practice, employing qualitative and quantitative research	To promote ethical reflections and knowledge among HPs, especially regarding the following topics: patient engagement and shared decision-making, advance care planning (ACP), Advance Directives (AD), end-of-life issues and palliative care, pediatric palliative care, and ethics of resource allocation
ETHICS CONSULTATION	Only the Head of the BU	Individual HPs or healthcare teams, especially in urgent circumstances	Provision of retrospective and prospective ethics consultation by a single, face-to-face consultation	To support HPs in resolving ethical conflicts or deal with the complex decision-making process
ETHICS SUPERVISION	Only the Head of the BU	Healthcare teams, during their regular meetings	Provision of structured ethical supervision during the care team meetings	If ethical aspects emerge, the Head of the BU participates in the discussion, supporting HPs to focus on the ethical dimension of care and deal with emerging moral complexities
EDUCATION AND TRAINING	All the BU members	Single wards on a specific request, or all HPs	Implementation and provision of training programs and ethics education by face-to-face and experiential classes	To promote ethical reflections and knowledge among HPs, especially regarding the following topics: patient engagement and shared decision-making, advance care planning (ACP), Advance Directives (AD), end-of-life issues and palliative care, pediatric palliative care, and ethics of resource allocation