Bioethics in Healthcare

Course overview

Thirty-five years ago, few healthcare practitioners had heard the word "bioethics". Now, healthcare practitioners serve on ethics committees, articles about ethics appear in a variety of publications, and the number of universities with advanced degrees in ethics continues to expand. Healthcare professionals adhere to a code of ethics that reflects the guiding values and principles of their profession. No single event created the field of bioethics; instead, a cascade of events created the discipline and changed healthcare decision making. These events brought lawyers, legislators, philosophers, and theologians together with physicians to insist on collective decision making, guidelines, and regulations to enhance patient autonomy. This course will help healthcare professionals become better versed in the topic of bioethics and help them identify and assess situations so ethical responses can be chosen and enacted.