HLT3610EN - The Healthcare Ethics Committee

Course description

Healthcare providers and support staff face many ethical issues in caring for patients including informed consent, confidentiality, end of life challenges, and how to allocate resources. These decisions affect providers, patients, family members, and support staff. Resolving ethical dilemmas in a clinical setting often is refered to a healthcare ethics committee. The process of this interdisciplinary team is to develop healthcare ethical value clarification skills will be introduced.

How this course benefits students

Students need to know and understand how healthcare issues are identified and handled in a clinical setting. They will learn the composition and operating principles used by healthcare ethics commitees and how they may provide appropriate input into this professional setting.

Why this course is important

Ethics in healthcare is a “hot topic.” The pillars of ethics and ethical theories flow largely out of religious thought and tradition.

Credit hours
3 hours
Subject area
Health
Educational level
Bachelor
Learning type
Instructional
Prerequisites
None
Upcoming terms
Pending
* Schedule subject to change. Please contact the Registrar's office with schedule questions.
Professor
Dr. Hal Scott, BCC, Professor of Military Ministry

How this course relates to missional core values

Biblically based

Biblical admonitions and guidance generally are not rules, but principles based upon the context of larger Christian teachings. These principles historically have served as a basis for "natural law." Usiing commonly accepted procedures in clinical settings with the appropriate language will allow the missional believer to translate his or her spiriual principles into the healthcare environment.

Missionally driven

If healthcare workers desire to live out their missional calling in the healthcare field, they will desire to guide and shape their colleagues and institutions to act more ethically.

Contextually informed

The healthcare field is a unique ministry context, and a course on healthcare ethics would help caregivers apply broader biblical principles to specific healthcare issues.

Interculturally focused

A large part of healthcare ethics tends to the issues of culture and equity. Healthcare values can change among differing cultures. Ethics takes this into account.

Practically minded

Ethics asks, what is the right thing to do? It is very practical.

Experientially transformed

Ethics cannot be applied without a case or situation. Learners would bring their cases to the table for discussion and learning and return to their practice with the benefit of that learning.