Skip to main content

700.623.01
Ethics of Healthcare Decision-Making: Theory and Practice

Location
East Baltimore
Term
2nd Term
Department
Berman Institute (Bioethics)
Credit(s)
3
Academic Year
2015 - 2016
Instruction Method
TBD
Class Time(s)
Tuesday, 3:00 - 5:50pm
Auditors Allowed
Yes, with instructor consent
Available to Undergraduate
No
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Contact Name
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Prerequisite
Description
Decision making is often placed at the center of the health care experience. What role do ethics play in decision making? What is a decision, and what ethical frameworks can be used to understand it? How can we improve (in light of given ethical frameworks) the experience, outcomes, and setting of decision making in the healthcare setting? This course will provide you with new ways to think about these issues, starting you on a path to remedy -- in a practical way -- some difficulties faced by everyone regarding decision making in our system.
Acquaints students with the ethical dimensions of healthcare decision-making by individuals, including shared decision-making in patient-provider encounters; decision-making in the context of incomplete information, patient disadvantage, distress or conflict; the understanding and approach of providers and systems to the ethical dimensions of decision-making; and relevant social and economic constraints on such decision-making. Explores topics in multiple settings, populations and health conditions, with the goal of making learners aware of the ethical implications of healthcare decisions, both in everyday practice and from a policy perspective.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
  1. Identify ways in which various ethical frameworks apply to instances of individual health care decision-making
  2. Explain selected social, cultural, and economic constraints on individual healthcare decision-making
  3. Analyze examples of common healthcare decision-making from an ethical perspective
  4. Critique the approaches taken by providers and institutions to ethical problems relevant to healthcare decision-making
  5. Propose ways in which the context, options, or setting of healthcare decision-making can be aligned with various ethical frameworks
  6. Select and begin to consider a real-world intervention to pursue in the final project and, if possible, in their future careers
Enrollment Restriction
Enrollment priority given to Master of Bioethics students