Course Objectives & Format

Like patients, health care providers have sincerely held religious and moral beliefs. Conscience laws are intended to protect medical professionals from being forced to perform procedures or provide treatments that violate their sincerely held beliefs. In some cases, these laws have also been used to restrict the rights of people seeking certain medical goods and services (including but not limited to: abortions, fertility treatments, contraception, and various kinds of gender-affirming medical care).

This e-learning supports health care providers in understanding and navigating the complex issues around conscience rules, particularly as they relate to LGBTQ+ patient care. Through thoughtful, non-judgmental training on conscience rules, it equips health care providers to handle conscience objections respectfully and better serve all patients.

The information presented here is ideal for health care providers, health care educators, medical students, and residents. This material is highly beneficial for providers who may have conscience objections and want to know how they can serve all patients. It is our hope that this course will foster understanding, affirmation, and equitable care for diverse patients, particularly LGBTQ+ individuals.

By the end of this course, you will:

• Know the difference between types of conscience objections.
• Understand the current legal status of conscience objections for providers, recognizing federal and state to state variability.
• Have tools to balance health care providers’ rights to personal religious & moral beliefs with patients’ rights to safe and dignified care, particularly LGBTQ+ patients.

The course content is divided into 3 sections:

1. Introduction – Introduces Conscience Laws, and establishes the I CARE Model used throughout each section. Included is an activity to explore your own perspectives on belief, belonging, and behavior as they relate to religion and spirituality in health care settings.

2. Professional Integrity – Introduces professional integrity conscience objections and the Triangle of Conscience. You will have an opportunity to apply the I CARE Model to an example of a professional integrity conscience objection.

3. Personal Conscience – The final section explores personal conscience objections. You will have the opportunity to apply the I CARE Model to three case examples.

• Each section includes at least one Knowledge Check.
• Many of the pages include additional information that can be accessed via links or by clicking on items marked with + signs to learn more.
• Please use the orange Next Lesson/Complete and Continue button (Next for mobile users) on the bottom right of each screen to advance through the content.
• The orange Previous Lesson button (Previous for mobile users) will allow you to go back and review material.

Information and trainings provided by Tanenbaum are for educational purposes only and are not intended nor implied to be a substitute for legal or medical advice. The legal landscape of Conscience Rules continues to evolve. To the best of our knowledge, the information contained in this course is accurate as of January 31, 2025. Please review the most up-to-date legal resources and policies where you work before taking any action.