Janice Firn, PhD, MSW, HEC-C

Amy Lynn (CBSSM), [email protected]

Dr. Firn has a BS from Michigan State University, MSW from the University of Michigan, and PhD from Lancaster University (UK). Janice is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Learning Health Sciences (DLHS). Before DLHS, Janice worked in oncology and palliative care at Michigan Medicine. She is also part of the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine (CBSSM), and serves as a Clinical Ethicist for the Clinical Ethics Service. Janice responds to ethics consultation requests, facilitates preventive ethics rounds, participates in interprofessional ethics education at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional level across the medical and academic campuses, and is involved in a number of related research and quality improvement/quality assurance initiatives.

Research and scholarly interests:

Bioethics; Clinician Self-Care, Burnout, and Resilience; Palliative and End of Life Care; Interprofessional Education, Training, and Collaboration; Methods of Qualitative Research.

Subject matter expertise:

Methods of Qualitative Research; Death, Loss, and Grief; Clinical and Preventive Ethics; Interprofessional Collaboration

Other professional highlights:

• Faculty, Pre-Doctoral Ethics Fellowship University of Michigan Medical School
• Faculty, Path of Excellence in Ethics University of Michigan Medical Schoool
• Adjunct Lecturer, University of Michigan School of Social Work
• 2017 Division of Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program Faculty Service Award recipient
• 2014 Beverly Jean Howard Excellence in Social Work, Michigan Medicine Social Worker of the Year Award recipient
• Featured in ASCO Connection article "Resilience While Caring for Seriously Ill Patients: Skills and Strategies to Prevent Burnout" https://connection.asco.org/tec/career/resilience-while-caring-for-seriously-ill-patients
• Co-developer of the Michigan Medicine Psychosocial Acuity Tool

Selected publications: 

• Kukora S, Laventhal N, Keefer P, Firn J. Transgressing Moral Imperatives: Ethical Stress, Virtues and Values Conflict in Pediatric Death. Pediatr Ethicscope, 2018; 31(1): 36-48.
• Khateeb R, Puelle M, Firn J, Saul D, Chang R, Min L. Interprofessional Rounds Improve Timing of Appropriate Palliative Care Consultation on a Hospitalist Service. Am J Med Quality. In press.
• Riotte C, Kukora S, Keefer P, Firn J. Identifying the Types of Support Needed by Interprofessional Teams Providing Pediatric End-of-Life Care: A Thematic Analysis. J Palliat Med; October 2017, ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2017.0331.
• Firn J, Preston N,Walshe C. Ward Social Workers' Views of What Facilitates or Hinders Collaboration with Specialist Palliative Care Team Social Workers: A Grounded Theory. BMC Palliat Care; 2017; 17:7.
• Firn J, DeVries K, Morano D, Spano-English T. Social Workers’ Experiences as the Family Support Person During Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Attempts. Soc Work Health Care. 2017; 56(5): 541-555.
• Ferrell B, Temel S, Temin S, Alesi E, Balboni T, Basch E, Firn J, Paice J, Peppercorn J, Phillips T, Stovall E, Zimmermann C, Smith T. The Integration of Palliative Care into Standard Oncology Care: American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Guideline Update. J Clin Onc. 2017; 35(1): 96-112. 
• Firn J, Preston N, Walshe C. What are the Views of Hospital-Based Generalist Palliative Care Professionals on what Facilitates or Hinders Collaboration with Inpatient Specialist Palliative Care Teams? A systematically constructed narrative synthesis. Palliat Med. 2016; 30(3): 240-256.
• Klett S, Firn J, Abney N, Battles A, Harrington J, Vantine A. Developing a Reliable and Valid Scale to Measure Psychosocial Acuity. Soc Work Health Care. 2014;53(5): 503-517.