HLSC220 - Health Care Ethics

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Teaching organisation

Unit rationale, description and aim

Healthcare practitioners are required to protect the vulnerability of those persons for whom they care. In this unit students will build upon understandings of the notions of human dignity and the common good, as well as interpret the notion of ethical integrity. Students will gain an understanding of the bio-ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, respect for patient autonomy and justice; and also explore and develop understandings of ethical issues raised by developments in the broader health care context, including professional governance and public health standards. To assist in this endeavour, students will engage in both formal and informal debate on topics of ethical significance in healthcare, such as those related to beginning and end-of-life decision-making, care of persons with chronic illness and disability, and concerns raised by the conduct of research on human subjects. In doing so, students will gain an understanding of the sources of ethical disagreement that characterise the contemporary liberal, multi-cultural and morally pluralistic societies in which students will practice professionally. The aim of this unit is to enable students to draw upon the ethical concepts and principles learned to support high standards of ethical conduct in student professional practice.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Identify ethical values, principles, theories, aims and commitments expressed within the professional-patient relationship (GA1, GA2, GA5)

LO2 - Explain the requirements of the principles of health care ethics, codes of professional conduct, the duty of care, and the standards for conducting research on human subjects (GA1, GA2, GA5)

LO3 - Debate sources of ethical disagreement in a morally pluralistic and culturally diverse society (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4)

LO4 - Critique ethical issues arising in health care practice (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5)

LO5 - Justify responses to ethical dilemmas arising in health care (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5)

Graduate attributes

GA1 - Demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity

GA2 - Recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society

GA3 - Apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - Think critically and reflectively

GA5 - Demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession

Content

Topics will include: 

• Foundations of Health Care Ethics
• A brief overview of virtue, duty and consequences
• Human dignity and human rights 
• The relationship between ethics and law
• Ethical relativism and pluralism
• Ethical Principles of Health Care
• Respect for human dignity 
• Respect for human rights
• Respect for patient autonomy
• Beneficence and the duty of care
• Non-maleficence and negligence
• Justice and the distribution of health care resources
• Truth-telling
• Addressing Ethical Issues in the Health Care Context
• Understanding ethical disagreement: individual and culturally defined values and beliefs
• Conscientious objection
• Human vulnerability and advocacy
• Responsibilities to the environment
• Health Care Professionalism
• Codes of Ethics and Codes of Professional Conduct
• Standards of care
• Professional integrity
• Justice fairness
• Research Ethics
• International human rights conventions
• Principles governing research conducted on human subjects
• National and local Human Research Ethics Committees
• Ethical practice
• Ethical considerations when engaging with communities
• ACU Community Engagement principles and values

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit requires students to undertake 150 hours of focused learning to achieve the unit learning outcomes. It has two delivery patterns: a standard full-semester delivery pattern which is scheduled nationally; and an intensive delivery pattern which is scheduled off-shore. Learning associated with this unit for both full-semester and intensive delivery pattern incorporates face-to-face teaching activities (lectures and tutorials), online activities, preparation and generation of assessment items and self-directed study. Consistent with adult learning principles, the teaching and learning approaches used within these modes of delivery will provide students with knowledge and skills relevant to health care ethics in professional practice. These approaches will also support students in meeting the aim, learning outcomes and graduate attributes of the unit and the broader course learning outcomes. Learning and teaching strategies will reflect respect for the individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for students learning and to participate actively with peers.

Students at university are required to operate effectively as self-sufficient learners who drive their own learning and access the learning support they require. To guide students in learning, feedback is required to identify what is being done well, what requires additional work and to identify progress toward required learning outcomes. Located in the second year of the course, this theory unit includes moderate face-to-face teaching hours and an increasing online component of learning to build life-long learning skills (the pattern of these teaching hours will vary between full semester and intensive delivery patterns). Lectures are utilised to convey content and its central principles while tutorials deliver interactive and student driven learning sessions which require an increasing reliance on students to extend their community of learners and increase self-reliance. Online materials provide students with the opportunity to drive the additional component of directed, self-motivated study students require to successfully transition to life-long learning.

Assessment strategy and rationale

A range of assessment items consistent with University assessment requirements and policy will be used to ensure students achieve the unit learning outcomes and attain the graduate attributes.

Students will be required to attempt three assessment tasks in this unit, an online quiz, an oral presentation, and a written essay. The early low stakes online quiz allows students to demonstrate foundational knowledge of the key ethical theory that underpins all subsequent learning and assessment in the unit and is an opportunity for early feedback. The oral presentation provides students the opportunity to demonstrate developing knowledge of ethical theories and bioethical principles as they apply in healthcare. The summative written essay allows students to demonstrate consolidation of knowledge through the contextual application of healthcare ethics to a contemporary healthcare topic.

On campus (in Rome)

A range of assessment items consistent with University assessment requirements and policy will be used to ensure students achieve the unit learning outcomes and attain the graduate attributes.

Students will be required to attempt two assessment tasks in this unit, an oral presentation and a written essay. The oral presentation (in-class group debate) provides students the opportunity to demonstrate developing knowledge of ethical theories and bioethical principles as they apply in healthcare, and collaboratively debate sources of ethical disagreement. The summative written essay allows students to demonstrate consolidation of knowledge through the contextual application of healthcare ethics to a contemporary healthcare topic.

Overview of assessments

Multi-mode;

On campus (in Rome)

Representative texts and references

Atkins, K., de Lacey, S., & Britton, B. (2020). Ethics and law for Australian nurses (4th ed.). Port Melbourne: CUP. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108859905

Barrett, D., Ortmann, L., Dawson, A., Saenz, C., Reis, A. & Bolan, G. (2016). Public health ethics: cases spanning the globe. Available at: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-23847-0.

Beauchamp, T., & Childress, J. (2019). Principles of biomedical ethics (8th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Caruso Brown, A. E., Hobart, T. R., & Morrow, C. B. (2019). Bioethics, Public Health, and the Social Sciences for the Medical Professions: An Integrated, Case-Based Approach (1st ed.). Springer International Publishing. Available at: https://acu-edu-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/hdp2hg/61ACU_ALMA51173049270002352.

Johnstone, M.J. (2019). Bioethics: A nursing perspective (7th ed.). Chatswood: Elsevier Available at: https://acu-edu-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/7pr622/61ACU_ALMA51155001550002352.

Kerridge, I., Lowe, M., & McPhee, J. (2013). Ethics and law for the health professions (4th ed.). Annandale, N.S.W.: The Federation Press.

Mastroianni, A. C., Kahn, J. P., & Kass, N. E. (2019). The Oxford handbook of public health ethics. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://acu-edu-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/hdp2hg/61ACU_ALMA51150019160002352.

Morrison, E. & Furlong, B. (Eds.). (2019). Health care ethics: Critical issues for the 21st century (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Richie, C., & Ehrlich, P. R. (2019). Principles of green bioethics: sustainability in health care. Michigan State University Press. Available at: https://acu-edu-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/hdp2hg/61ACU_ALMA51154037350002352.

Townsend, R. & Luck, M. (2019). Applied paramedic law and ethics: Australia and New Zealand (2nd ed.). Available at: https://acu-edu-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/hdp2hg/61ACU_ALMA51164583050002352.