Providence Health Care (PHC) and St. Mark’s College at UBC are excited to share the news of the appointment of Dr. Scott Kline (PhD) as the inaugural Visiting Scholar in Ethics.
This position is a collaboration to provide joint teaching, learning, and health care delivery by enhancing learning opportunities in Ethics through clinical experiential learning, academic research, and teaching at St. Paul’s Hospital and St. Mark’s College.
“In this time of rapid technological developments, medical discoveries, and social unrest, Catholic institutions are responding to Pope Francis’ call to engage complex moral challenges with a ‘culture of care’ and in ‘social dialogue.’ I look forward to working with the communities at both St. Mark’s College and Providence Health Care as they engage today’s moral challenges and carry out their complementary missions,” said Dr. Kline.
With a PhD in Christian Social Ethics, extensive academic teaching experience, and as being an established theologian and researcher, along with experiences as Interim President and Vice-Chancellor at St. Jerome’s University-University of Waterloo, Dr. Kline is well prepared to step into the Visiting Scholar role and be a strong part of the St. Mark’s College and Providence communities.
His current research focuses include the role of faith-based organizations in systems approaches to homelessness, which he conducts with his wife Dr. Megan Shore, and is already involved in a research project with Dr. Jim Christenson, emergency physician at St. Paul’s and Head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at UBC, on the Samaritan theme of neighbour saving neighbour, which focuses on rapid and effective responses to cardiac arrests.
“Every day, health care decision-making becomes ethically more complex for health care providers in the face of rapid medical advancements, shifting social trends, and as we seek to live our values in our work and care for those we serve. The Visiting Scholar role offers additional capacity-building in ethics for our frontline care providers, and will engage Providence staff, leaders, physicians and researchers in dialogue and enriched understanding towards the application of ethics in Catholic health care,” said Dr. Christopher De Bono, Vice President of Mission, People & Ethics.
In this role, Dr. Kline will be teaching courses and continuing his research from the St. Mark’s College campus, where he will also provide lectures available to both organizations and the public. While at PHC, Dr. Kline will engage and collaborate with the Clinical Ethics team and with the broader Providence community.
Dr. Kline will begin his one-year Visiting Scholar tenure in January 2021. Please join us in welcoming him to the PHC family!