COURSE INFORMATION

This CE course is designed for nurse managers, working supervisors, assistant managers and department managers and for those who aspire to hold these positions in their healthcare organization. In addition, Nurses practicing in the Legal field and as Cases Managers can benefit from this course as well. There is also relevance to those that work in Social Services Field, as well as all who practice in professional health care practices.  We recognize that managers need a sound understanding of the concepts of how healthcare ethics affect their working environment.  Our goal is to provide you with a solid foundation, with sufficient guidance, and enough information about healthcare ethics to be beneficial to your work life and most importantly when applicable to patients served. The most common ethical issues and related legal issues encountered today in health care practice are presented in this course. This knowledge will be helpful for both prospective and sitting managers to be successful in the daily running of their departments and managing the challenges that those who work in healthcare face. An understanding of healthcare ethics methodology will prepare students to make appropriate decisions in the environments they work in. All who work with patients in clinical practices will also benefit highly from the content in this course.

Course Code: HM 570. Contact hours of Continuing Education = 50.

Level of Complexity: Intermediate

Instructor/Course Author:  Mark C. Barabas, BS, DHA, FACHE

Link to Resume

E-mail: mcbarabas@aol.com

TEXTBOOK: There is one (1) required textbook for this course.

Healthcare Ethics and the Law. Donna K, Hammaker and Thomas M. Knadig. Jones & Bartlett Learning. March 11, 2016.

TIME FRAME: You are allotted two years from the date of enrollment, to complete this course. There are no set time-frames, other than the two year allotted time. If you do not complete the course within the two-year time-frame, you will be removed from the course and an “incomplete” will be recorded for you in our records. Also, if you would like to complete the course after this two-year expiration time, you would need to register and pay the course tuition fee again.

GRADING: You must achieve a passing score of at least 70% to complete this course and receive the 50 hours of awarded continuing education credit. There are no letter grades assigned. You will receive notice of your total % score. Those who score below the minimum of 70% will be contacted by the American Institute of Health Care Professionals and options for completing additional course work to achieve a passing score, will be presented.

BOARD APPROVALS:

The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is an Approved Provider for Continuing Education by the South Carolina Professional Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists and Psycho-Educational Specialists licensing board, Provider # 4637. Access information

The American Institute of Health Care Professionals (The Provider) is approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses, Provider number # CEP 15595 for 50 Contact Hours.

The American Institute of Health Care Professionals, Inc. is an Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Florida State Board of Nursing  Provider # 50-11975.

OTHER STATE BOARDS OF NURSING

The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Arkansas Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.

The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Georgia Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.

The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the South Carolina Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.

The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Professional Registered Nurses. CE Provider # 50-11975.

The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Kentucky Board of Nursing CE Provider # 50-11975.

The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the New Mexico Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.

Course Refund & AIHCP Policies: access here

ONLINE CLASSROOM RESOURCES AND TOOLS

* Examination Access: there is link to take you right to the online examination program where you can print out your examination and work with it. All examinations are formatted as “open book” tests. When you are ready, you can access the exam program at anytime and click in your responses to the questions. Full information is provided in the online classrooms.

* Student Resource Center: there is a link for access to a web page “Student Resource Center.” The Resource Center provides for easy access to all of our policies/procedures and additional information regarding applying for certification. We also have many links to many outside reference sites, such as online libraries that you may freely access.

* Online Evaluation: there is a link in the classroom where you may access the course evaluation. All students completing a course, must, without exception, complete the course evaluation.

* Faculty Access Information: you will have access to your instructor’s online resume/biography, as well as your instructor’s specific contact information.

* Additional Learning Materials: All course handouts are available in the online Video classrooms. All E-Learning Books are available in the classrooms for students to download.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

1. Explain how to arrive at the intended result when making decisions that are ethical.
2. Understand and evaluate 8 decision making models based on the insights of major philosophers of ethics
3. Apply decision-making models when making ethical judgements within the healthcare industry
4. Understand the role, responsibilities and decision making process of medical ethics committees in healthcare organizations
5. Explain the difference between medical ethics committee decisions that are legal and those that are ethical
6. Describe the values and principles that govern and guide the decisions of medical ethics committees when ethical dilemmas are reviewed
7. Describe the parameters of the American social contract and understand the importance of basic fairness and human equality in the provision of healthcare
8. Understand the ethical principles underlying the challenge providing affordable access to health insurance to vulnerable populations
9. Explain the risk pooling programs being developed to provide effective and affordable health insurance to the uninsured and underinsured
10. Summarize the different ethical principles motivation the federal mandate to provide universal healthcare requiring most US residents to maintain health insurance
11. Evaluate the ethical issues surrounding tax subsidies to offset part of the cost of buying private health insurance
12. Understand the ethical principles underlying patient’s rights and the political choices confronting the nation about allocating payment for medical care
13. Describe how patients can protect themselves when seeking care/coverage in the managed care marketplace
14. Explain factors that affect patient rights and influence the ability of patients to make their own health care decisions
15. Summarize the ethical issues of holding down cost while giving patients more say in the kind of medical treatments they care obtain
16. Summarize the ethical principles and policies that require tax-exempt hospitals to provide fair and reasonable charges for health care services in return for substantial federal, state and local tax exemptions
17. Explain whether tax-exempt hospitals are doing enough charity care to justify their tax exemptions
18. Understand the complexity of policies that allocate costs and seek payment for services in tax-exempt hospitals
19. Summarize the ethical principles underlying the efforts to reduce and fairly allocate employers’ health care cost
20. Understand the existing forces that inadvertently support the present status quos of smoking, obesity and diabetes
21. Explain how employers determine the types of medical interventions to implement when addressing preventable lifestyle behaviors
22. Describe the factors behind tolerating employee behaviors that cost employers money and affect work performance that can be effectively addressed through environmental interventions
23. Assess options where the health care industry can work with employees to develop models for employee preventative self-care
24. Describe why management and labor unions should work together to improve economic discontent and address wealth disparity
25. Understand the issues involved in unionization of health care professionals
26. Explain how to effectively make ethical decisions regarding mandatory overtime
27. Understand the ethical principle underlying evidenced based medicine
28. Summarize the ethical issues facing physicians who support or oppose the evidenced based effort to provide more reliable medical treatment
29. Describe the ethical principles justifying the use of evidenced based guidelines to make decisions about the care individual patients should receive
30. Explain the ethical controversy surrounding the review of scientific studies with scientific improprieties in peer reviewed medical journals (research bias, errors and fraud)
31. Evaluate current efforts to improve and implement evidenced based medicine more widely in mainstream health care delivery
32. Understanding the ethical principles of compassion and justice underlying the proposals to reduce the risk of malpractice
33. Explain how to reach the most ethical decisions with regard to malpractice, standards of care and malpractice insurance
34. Evaluate current ethical principles that are preventing adoption of enterprise liability that limits or eliminates the malpractice liability of physicians/healthcare professionals
35. Summarize the ethical principles of human dignity and personal autonomy underlying  the health care system’s response to mental illness and disability
36. Understand how the epidemiology of mental illness reveals the magnitude of severe mental illness disorders in the U. S.
37. Explain why depression ranks as more of a disease burden to the U’ S. healthcare system than any other illness
38. Understand that the lack of testing and prophylactic care is the major driver behind the spread of HIV
39.  Assess the intensified call to address the long term healthcare needs of the chronically ill including patients with HIV
40. Understand why economically vulnerable patients do not always have access to anti-retroviral medications until they become disabled and eligible for government insurance
41. Describe why debate about HIV elicits highly charged emotions and opinions
42. List ethical issues surrounding debate over the role and responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry in addressing the HIV pandemic
43. Explain the conflicting ethical principles the pharmaceutical industry must contend with as it offers essential HIV medications to the uninsured, under insured and those on government programs at prices below market prices
44. Understand why HIV has led to a critical examination of the government regulatory system for oversight of new medical product in the U. S.
45. Understand that environmental safety and the well being of the U. S. population should guide the nations laws and ethical principles with regard to gun injury prevention
46. Analyze the fundamental legal and ethical principles underlying the individual right to both self-defense and gun control
47. Describe the environmental safety issues stemming from homicides and suicides committed with guns, including the medical and financial impact on society
48. Evaluate the data and research on decreased life expectancy as a result of gun injuries and how this information could be to address the gun control controversy
49. Differentiate between the provision of healthcare services for procreation and other health conditions from an ethical perspective
50. Evaluate the ethical issues surrounding women’s reproductive care in light of the inaccessibility of contraception and prenatal care
51. Describe the ethical principles underlying state regulations that limit access to abortions
52. Explain sexual privacy issues from an ethical perspective including refusal, conscience legislation and emergency contraception provision in the law.
53. Understand how the U. S. healthcare system’s ethical foundation has created disparities in the treatment of health conditions that affect men and women
54. Evaluate the ethical positions in the debate between the food industry and public health advocates over the production of high fat , sugar laden non nutritious foods advertising and related food safety issues.
55. Assess how the government subsidies of commodities like corn and sugar are affecting the nation’s food supply
56. Understand the ethical principles underlying the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011
57. Explain the food safety controversy of determining if genetically modified food commodities should be subject to a mandatory approval process that would ensure such food is safe as opposed to assuming it is safe
58. Understand the ethical principles underlying the question of whether people have a right to die at a time and place of their choosing
59. Explain the difference between palliative sedation and physician assisted dying
60. Describe how hospice has been demonstrated to improve quality of life for patients with terminal prognosis as well as those with a non-treatable or physically debilitating disease
61. Analyze the ethical principles surrounding the question of whether mature minors have the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment
62. Predict how the U. S. healthcare system may change in a way that is more compassionate, fair and just
63. Describe the most challenging ethical issues facing health care professionals
64. Understand the ethical principles underlying new and developing healthcare models