Position: CLINICAL ETHICIST
Department: Centre for Clinical Ethics
Status: Full Time
Site: Baycrest and Unity Health Toronto
Hours of Work: in-person Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week, some on-call responsibilities, local travel required
Overview
The Centre for Clinical Ethics (CCE) at Unity Health Toronto—in collaboration with Baycrest—invites applications for a full-time clinical ethicist position. The successful candidate will be an employee of Unity Health Toronto but will split their time equally between Baycrest and Unity Health Toronto. Individuals interested in part-time employment only at Baycrest will also be considered.
The ideal candidate will be passionate and knowledgeable about healthcare ethics and have the talent to build institutional ethics programs in support of the delivery of excellent care for patients and residents. This role will be anchored in post-acute care and will serve as a critical resource for the Centre for this area. The role reports to the Senior Director, Centre for Clinical Ethics with accountabilities to a senior leader in Baycrest.
The CCE ( http://www.ccethics.com ) is part of Unity Health Toronto, a health network composed of Providence Healthcare, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, and St. Michael’s Hospital. Committed to the mission and values of Unity Health Toronto, the CCE’s goal is to enable members of the healthcare community to identify and resolve ethical issues that arise in the clinical settings. The CCE’s core activities include clinical case consultation, education, policy development, research ethics, and academic research. The CCE is a composed of a dynamic team of 8 ethicists, 3 fellows, and one admin assistant providing ethics services to 11 institutions. Additionally, the CCE also runs a well-established fellowship program in clinical ethics.
Responsibilities:
1) Leadership and Program Development
- Direct the ethics programs at Baycrest in response to organizational and clinical needs
2) Clinical and Organizational Ethics Consultation
- Facilitate ethics consults with patients, family members, staff, physicians, and management on a range of ethical issues
- Provide ethics support to relevant committees and working groups
- Participate in policy development as requested
- Be available for on-call on a rotating basis with other staff at the CCE
3) Research Ethics review
- Participate as a member of the Baycrest Research Ethics Board
4) Education
- Provide local ethics education (e.g. in-services) to staff, physicians and trainees, deliver ethics grand rounds to all partner sites (webinar) on a rotating basis with other staff at the CCE, and be involved in the fellowship education program
5) Scholarship and research
- Engage in research and scholarship opportunities
Qualifications and Skills:
- Master’s degree in bioethics or a related field (e.g. moral philosophy, moral theology) required
- Doctorate level degree or equivalent in Bioethics or a related discipline preferred
- Ideally 3-5 years of experience working as a clinical ethicist or a combination of fellowship/job experience preferred
- Experience in organizational ethics and research ethics review required
- Experience working in a post-acute healthcare environment required
- Ideally has completed a fellowship or post-graduate training in clinical or organizational ethics preferred
- Ideally has experience working in a faith-based institution preferred
Some background on Baycrest and Unity Health Toronto
Baycrest is a global leader in residential living for older adults, healthcare, research, innovation and education, with a special focus on brain health and aging. Baycrest is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto and home to a robust research and innovation network, including one of the world’s top research institutes in cognitive neuroscience, the Rotman Research Institute; the scientific headquarters of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging, Canada’s largest national dementia research initiative; and the Baycrest-powered Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation, a solution accelerator focused on driving innovation in the aging and brain health sector. Founded in 1918 as the Toronto Jewish Old Folks Home, Baycrest continues to embrace the long-standing tradition of all great Jewish healthcare institutions to improve the well-being of people in their local communities and around the globe.
Unity Health Toronto is one of Canada’s largest Catholic healthcare networks serving patients, residents and clients across the full spectrum of care, spanning primary care, secondary community care, tertiary and quaternary care services to post-acute through rehabilitation, palliative care and long-term care, while investing in world-class research and education.
Application process
Please submit your CV and a letter of intent to this posting by June 19, 2026.
Unity Health Toronto encourages applications from qualified candidates, and we especially welcome applicants who are Indigenous, Black or Racialized, persons with disabilities, people who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+, and all others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.
Applicants must be eligible to work in Canada.
While we appreciate all applications received, only those applicants selected for an interview will be contacted.
Thank you for your interest in this position
Unity Health Toronto is committed to creating an accessible and inclusive organization. We strive to provide a recruitment process that is barrier-free and in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and the Ontario Human Rights Code. We understand that you may require an accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process. When you are contacted, please inform the Talent Acquisition Specialist and we will work with you to meet your accommodation needs. We want to emphasize that all accommodation requests are handled with the utmost confidentiality, respecting your privacy and dignity.
