Course module - Ethico-Legal Problems in Health Care Practice
Code : CSEP60222 Credit rating: 15 Semester : 2
Aims
The aims of this course unit are:
To relate the underlying theory, and skills of argumentation learned from the other core course units - Philosophical Bioethics and Medico-Legal Problems - to real ethico-legal issues confronted in health care practice in an international context;
To draw out the relevance of ethical and medico-legal theory to the kinds of issues that students may expect to encounter during their professional lives, and to develop the skills necessary to successfully resolve real-world ethical and medico-legal dilemmas.
Objectives
On successful completion of this course unit, students will be able to:
Identify which moral philosophical approaches and which medico-legal theoretical approaches are most appropriate to the successful resolution of a particular real issue;
Apply, with confidence, the theory they will have mastered in Philosophical Bioethics and in Medico-Legal Problems, to real life cases in an international context;
Demonstrate that they have developed an enhanced ability to resolve the kinds of ethical and medico-legal issues they may expect to encounter in their working lives;
Reflect upon, and critically analyse the relevant legal and moral theoretical foundations in light of their application to real-world scenarios and actual cases;
Engage with, evaluate, and, where appropriate, criticise and argue against the arguments offered, and ultimate decisions handed down by practitioners, judges and regulators in the fields of medical law and health care practice;
Formulate logical and clear arguments on their own position in relation to the accepted ethico-legal assessments of, and decisions made in real cases from health care practice.
Undertake independent ethical and legal research using a variety of sources;
Write critically and analytically on issues that raise ethical or medico-legal concerns.
Assessment
One assessed essay of 4,000 words
Note: There will be a clear demarcation between essay assignments that are medico-legal in nature and those that deal with ethical issues.
Information
The course unit director of CSEP60222 is Dr Charles A. Erin.
Formative feedback within this course unit is provided in class presentations and discussions.
Feedback on assessed written work is provided through comprehensive written electronic feedback giving both broad indications and detailed comments on strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement. An outline of issues for the unit's written assignment will also be published post-assessment on Blackboard.
This is a compulsory course unit for campus-based Health Care Ethics & Law programmes in The School of Law.
Course Content
This compulsory course unit comprises a series seminars presented and run both by members of academic staff and two invited recognised medical, ethical and/or legal experts. The course places a particular focus on the relevance of the knowledge developed in the semester 1 core modules to the international arena. These issues are further explored in discussion and written work. A flexible, multi-disciplinary approach is adopted which takes into account the needs of students (and, thus, current and future health care professionals, and current and future medico-legal practitioners) and incorporates analysis of contemporary ethico-legal dilemmas in health care practice.
The timetable will adapt each year depending on invited guest speakers, but will include such themes as:
• National cultures and medical law;
• Globalising bioethics;
• Global issues in medical claiming;
• Global issues in Intellectual Property law and biomedicine;
• Public health on the international stage;
• Cross-border access to healthcare and healthcare tourism;
• International regulation of biotechnologies
Course materials
Course Materials and Handouts (current students only)
ManLaw intranet page for CSEP60222
Timetable
See CSEP timetable
Teaching Methods
Class Time: 20 hours
This core course unit embraces various teaching and learning methods –- all unified by the requirement for student involvement in round-table discussion. For example, some sessions will involve a formal, didactic period followed by a moderated Q&A session; some will involve the class being broken into small groups of 4 or 5 students, each group to analyse a particular case (with occasional input from a ‘wandering Tutor’), and to report back to the entire class during a final round-table discussion. The requirement for structured debate remains a staple of these sessions, and is normally accomplished via the ‘challenge-response’, or Socratic method. The experience of CSEP Tutors over the past 20 years and more is that, with whatever else it is deployed, these ‘round tables’ are the most efficient in teasing out the subtle ethico-legal nuances of any issue put on the table, and, ultimately, remain the most effective way of eliciting the best possible learning outcomes for our students.
Additionally, the students will be expected to undertake private study, approximately as follows:
Preparation for classes and seminars: 30 hours
Research and directed reading: 60 hours
Preparation of assignments: 40 hours
Total time: 150 hours
Preliminary reading
As for Philosophical Bioethics and Medicao-Legal Problems; specific reading will be prescribed in advance of each ELPiHCP session.