Unit name | Introduction to Ethical and Legal Issues in Health Care |
---|---|
Unit code | COBMM0001 |
Credit points | 30 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Quigley |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Bristol Medical School |
Faculty | Faculty of Health Sciences |
This unit will introduce students to key theories in health care ethics and law and enable students to critically evaluate and apply these. The unit will familiarise students with the major contemporary perspectives in applied ethics, introduce students to legal analysis as it applies to health care, relate these perspectives to key ethical and legal issues and introduce research methods in health care ethics and law.
Topics to be covered include:
(i) Study skills for successful masters-level scholarship;
(ii) Introduction to research methods in health care ethics and law; (iii) principles of health care ethics,
(iv) ethical theories,
(v) introduction to law and legal reasoning,
(vi) introduction to clinical negligence
(vii) overview of key topics in health care law; and
(viii) the relation between law and morality and interplay of ethical and legal reasoning in health care ethics and law.
Aims:
This Unit aims to provide students with a systematic understanding and critical awareness of central topics and materials in ethics and law as applied to health care. It aims to facilitate students to begin to apply and interpret knowledge gained by assessing ethical and legal arguments and scholarship (and the interplay between these) and to reflect on their application in health care, including the appropriateness of current methods of legal and ethical regulation and options for reform. Students will also gain a comprehensive understanding of and ability to critique the main research methods in health care ethics and law.
On successful completion of this Unit, students will be able to:
Assessment of this unit will comprise the following:
(a) A formatively assessed plan and draft for the summative assessment for this Unit (maximum 3,000 words); and
(b) A summatively assessed essay of 5,000 words (100%), which will test the student’s ability to comprehend bioethical and legal arguments relating to the student’s area of professional practice. This would, for example, involve comparison and analysis of academic papers and legal materials relating to the particular field. This essay will be submitted following the second set of teaching/study days for the Unit.