Program Overview

Introduction to the HLSC220 Unit

The HLSC220 unit focuses on Health Care Ethics, aiming to develop students' understanding of ethical thought and principles in healthcare practice. This unit explores key ethical values, aims, and commitments that promote health and human value, enabling students to navigate the healthcare environment with high standards of ethical conduct.

Unit Rationale, Description, and Aim

Healthcare professionals engage in a technical and moral enterprise that seeks to promote human health, create a humane healthcare system, and enable the flourishing of communities. This unit builds upon students' understanding of human dignity, the common good, and ethical integrity, developing their skills in ethical practice to inform further learning in subsequent units.

Learning Outcomes

To successfully complete this unit, students will demonstrate the following learning outcomes:

• Explore key ethical values, aims, or commitments and how these promote health and human value
• Consider sources of ethical dilemmas in healthcare practice and formulate responses to these
• Discuss and critique key sources of ethical disagreement in a morally pluralistic and culturally diverse society

Unit Content

The unit content is divided into modules that cover:

Module 1: Bioethics and Health

• Introduction to ethics, ethical thought, and bio-ethical principles
• Moral principles for healthcare practice, including human good, common good, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice

Module 2: Bioethics and Health Professionals

• Virtues required of healthcare professionals, such as prudence, compassion, transparency, veracity, empathy, and courage
• Autonomy and informed consent, non-maleficence and negligence, beneficence and the duty of care

Module 3: Bioethics and Society

• Justice, including the distribution of healthcare resources and social justice
• Human vulnerability and advocacy, ethical health research, and professional codes of ethics/conduct

Assessment Strategy and Rationale

The assessment strategy includes a range of tasks to ensure students achieve the unit learning outcomes and attain graduate attributes. These tasks may include:

• Written reflection
• Oral presentation
• Written essay Each task is designed to assess specific learning outcomes and graduate capabilities, ensuring students demonstrate their understanding of ethical principles and their application in healthcare practice.

Learning and Teaching Strategy

The unit employs multiple means of access and engagement with scaffolded learning content, including face-to-face teaching activities, online activities, assessment items, and self-directed study. This approach connects to discipline theory and professional practice units, enabling students to develop skills in ethical practice.

Representative Texts and References

A list of representative texts and references is provided to support student learning, including works by Aristotle, Beauchamp, and Childress, among others. These resources cover topics such as biomedical ethics, public health ethics, and nursing perspectives on bioethics.

Unit Details

• Credit Points: 10
• Year: 2025
• Locations: Ballarat, Brisbane, Blacktown, Canberra, Melbourne, North Sydney, Rome

Conclusion

The HLSC220 unit is designed to equip students with the ethical skills necessary to navigate the healthcare environment and ensure high standards of ethical conduct in their future practice. Through a combination of theoretical foundations and practical applications, students will develop a deep understanding of ethical principles and their role in promoting health and human value.