Sinai Health Bioethics Grand Rounds: Trauma Informed Ethics in the NICU | Virtual

Speaker: Dr. Uchenna Anani | Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Assistant Program Director, Pediatrics Residency program, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Learning objectives:

• Describe trauma informed care (TIC) and trauma informed ethics consultation (TIEC).
• Apply a TIEC framework in clinical practice, particularly in the context of clinical ethics consultation in the NICU setting.
• Examine how the utilization of a TIEC framework can inform and promote health equity in clinical ethics practice.

Dr. Uchenna Anani is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Core Faculty in the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, and Assistant Program Director for the Pediatrics Residency program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. After completing her medical school training at Howard University College of Medicine and Pediatric residency training at the University of Michigan, she moved to Nashville, TN where completed her fellowship training in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine with distinction in biomedical ethics at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. She has remained as faculty in the Division of Neonatology at Vanderbilt since 2018.

Dr. Anani’s research centers around the integration of bioethics and health equity. Using normative, qualitative, and mixed method research study designs, she specifically studies how implicit bias in parent-provider communication impacts health disparities in bedside counseling and treatment decision-making as well as how the utilization of trauma-informed care principles can enhance equity in health-care communication and clinical ethics consultation. In addition to her research, she also serves on the core leadership committee for the Neonatal Justice Collaborative, a national and multi-disciplinary grassroots organization driven to advance health equity, anti-racism, and social justice in the field of Neonatology through advocacy, research and education.