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Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities

Northwestern Clinical Bioethics Scholars Program

The Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities offers a two-year scholars program that provides advanced training in the theory of bioethics and its application to clinical medicine.

The program includes the following curricular components:

  • Attend 10 Core Didactics/Workshops
  • Attend 12 Specialty Didactics/Workshops
  • Complete Asynchronous Learning
  • Develop a Scholarly Project
  • Develop a Portfolio of Scholarly Activities

The curriculum provides a broad understanding of clinical bioethics across the following six subcompetencies:

  • Patient care
  • Medical knowledge
  • Practice based learning and improvement
  • System based practice
  • Interpersonal skills and communications
  • Professionalism

Program Objectives:

  • Understand the moral, philosophical, and historical basis of bioethics
  • Understand the basic principles of bioethics
  • Identify ethical features of a clinical encounter and develop critical skills necessary to evaluate ethical claims
  • Address ethical challenges and conflicts through defending a particular position on an ethical issue
  • Develop awareness of ethical issues that may occur across subspecialties
  • Develop scholarly products that allow the learner to increase their understanding of the ethical challenges in their own subspecialty or area of study

Please note: We are not planning any remote options for in-person programming.

Eligibility

All local healthcare professionals and staff are eligible to apply. Additionally, faculty from non-healthcare fields (at Northwestern University and other local academic institutions) are eligible to apply if the area of bioethics can be applied to their primary area of study (e.g., medical anthropology, environmental/health issues, health journalism).

Tuition

The registration fee for all participants is a total of $2,000.

Apply to Join


Applications to join in Fall 2026 are now being accepted. The deadline is Sunday, August 2. A brief online application, a statement of purpose, a statement of experience, and an updated CV are required for consideration.

McGaw residents and fellows, please apply instead to the McGaw Bioethics Clinical Scholars Program.

APPLY

Important Dates (2026)

  • Information session: Wednesday, July 1 at 6pm, via Zoom (Register here)
  • Applications close: Sunday, August 2
  • Decisions communicated: Mid/late August
  • Orientation: Wednesday, August 26, 6-7pm (tentative), via Zoom 
  • First seminar session: Wednesday, September 9, 6-8pm, in person