Applying Ethical Decision-Making in Clinical Practice

Course overview

Throughout a therapists career, they will be faced with challenging ethical dilemmas. For example, approximately 40% of psychologists will receive a licensing board complaint (Novotney, 2016). When reviewing the most common ethical complaints, failure to acquire education credits and nonsexual dual relationships happened the most frequently followed by mispresenting credentials in public (Wilkinson et al., 2019). The ability to practice ethically, abide by a code of ethics, and follow a guide for ethical decision-making are critical for all behavioral health providers. In this course, you will learn about evidence-based ethical decision-making models and how to apply those models to various ethical dilemmas. Vignettes and interactive exercises provide the opportunity to apply these concepts when working in clinical practice. The goal of this course is to provide addictions, behavioral health counseling, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychology, and social work professionals in health and human service settings with information on ethical decision-making models and how to apply those models in clinical practice. Keep in mind, this course is designed to provide you with general guidance about ethical issues that are common in clinical practice. Because of copyright issues and because it would be beyond the scope of this course, the specific guidance from each professional code of ethics cannot be presented. You should always check with your specific code of ethics before deciding how to proceed.