Australian Catholic University
FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES
School of NURSING, MIDWIFERY AND PARAMEDICINE
NATIONAL UNIT OUTLINE
SEMESTER 1, 2020
HLSC220: HEALTH CARE ETHICS
UNIT OUTLINE Revised COVID-19 impacted
Credit points: 10
Prerequisites/incompatibles: NIL
Unit rationale, description and aim: Health care professionals are required to protect the vulnerability of those persons for whom they care. In this unit, to ensure the wellbeing of your future patients or clients, you will build upon your understanding of the notions of human dignity and the common good, as well as interpret the notion of ethical integrity. You will gain an understanding of the principles of harm, benefit, respect for patient autonomy and justice. You will also develop your understanding of ethical issues raised by developments in the broader health care context, including professional governance and public health standards. To assist you in this endeavour, you will engage in both formal and informal debate on topics of ethical significance, 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, you will gain an understanding of the sources of ethical disagreement that characterise the contemporary liberal, multicultural and morally-pluralistic societies in which you will practice professionally. The aim of this unit is to enable you to draw upon the concepts and principles learned to ensure high standards of ethical conduct in your future practice.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of this unit students should be able to:
- Define and interpret ethical values, standards, aims and commitments expressed within the professional-patient relationship; (GA 1, 2, 5)
- 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; (GA 1, 2, 5)
- Analyse and debate the sources of ethical disagreement in a morally pluralistic and culturally diverse society; and (GA1, 2, 3, 4)
- Distinguish and evaluate ethical issues arising within professional health care practice, and explain and defend justified responses to ethical dilemmas (GA 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
FOR ALL ASSIGNMENTS
Please include the word count of your assignment on the front page of your assignment or in a header. Please note that in-text citations are included in the word count whilst the reference list is not included in the word count. Words that are more than 10% over the word count will not be considered for marking. Please see further information in the section below titled ‘Word Count’.
ASSIGNMENT 1 Opinion Piece
Due date: Week 9, April 27th, 2359 hours
Weighting: 50%
Length and/or format: 1500 words +/- 10%)
Purpose: The purpose of this assessment is for students to demonstrate the capacity to develop an ethical argument/s based on the four ethical principles: autonomy, justice, beneficence and nonmaleficence. Students will use their allocated topic to develop a sound ethical argumentative opinion piece.
Assignment details:
During the 1st week of lectures your tutor allocated a topic for discussion from the prescribed four options (for debate). Using the allocated topic given to you construct an argumentative opinion piece.
Learning outcomes assessed: 1 & 2
How to submit: Electronically via ‘Turnitin’ Week 9, April 27th, 2359 hours. Late submission will attract a penalty as per ACU assessment policy
Return of assignment: Marks and feedback will be published within 3 weeks in Turnitin
Assessment criteria: Marking will be undertaken using a rubric (see Appendix 1). Please include the word count of your assignment on the front page of your assignment or in a header. Please note that intext citations are included in the word count whilst the reference list is not included in the word count. Words that are more than 10% over the word count will not be considered Please see further information in the section below titled ‘Word Count’.
ASSIGNMENT 2 Exam
Weighting: 50%
Length and/or format: 2.5 hours of examination conducted via LEO (allocated timing includes adjustments for additional reading and typing time.
Purpose: This written examination is designed to assess knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to the content delivered in lectures, tutorials and suggested readings
Assignment details: This examination will be comprised of a case study and related short-answer questions. Multiple-choice questions will assess theoretical understanding. Learning outcomes assessed: 3 & 4
Return of assignment: Students who wish to view their exam paper may make an appointment with the lecturer-in-charge following the official release to student grades.
WORD COUNT
Writing requires skill and being able to write within a specified word limit is an essential component of professional and academic work. Reading and writing critically are fundamental skills which demonstrate an understanding and an ability to make judgements and solve problems, hence why only 10% of a word count should be direct quotes. That is, if the word count is 1500 words only 150 of those words should be direct quotes. Word counts provide students with an indication of the amount of detail and work required for each assessment item.
What is included in a word count?
Essentially, all text within an assessment item from the introduction through to the conclusion is counted in the word count. This includes all in-text citations, direct quotes and headings. The word count does not include the following: • Title page • Reference list • Appendices • Tables • Figures and legends
