Ethics and Law in Public Health - PHCM9331
Faculty: Faculty of Medicine
School: School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Course Outline: See Course Outline
Campus: Sydney
Career: Postgraduate
Units of Credit: 6
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2
Enrolment Requirements:
Prerequisite: Students who are not enrolled in a postgraduate program in the Faculty of Medicine should contact the School of Public Health and Community Medicine to discuss their background and seek enrolment approval.
CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)
Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule
Further Information: See Class Timetable
View course information for previous years.
Description
The course is offered in external mode and involves weekly online tutorials as well as a compulsory one day Foundations Workshop at the start of the course.
The course aims to deliver knowledge and skills in identifying ethical and legal issues in health care policy development by reference to some recurring tensions: Balancing individual rights with the goal of achieving healthy populations; the challenges of health care rationing; and addressing the needs of particular groups. We will bring these issues to life through a series of case studies, including tobacco control policy, the “obesity epidemic”, pandemic influenza, involuntary treatment for mental illness, vaccination policy and cancer screening. These case studies form the basis of online discussions and provide a practical anchor for developing students' understanding of the relevant ethical and legal issues.
Perhaps more than any other discipline, discussion and collaboration is the key to ethical decision making. Communication with stakeholder groups and drawing on expertise across a range of disciplines including economics, law, sociology, the various health care professions, research fields including epidemiology, infection control and so on, are central to creating policy and designing appropriate and effective laws. Online group discussions are central to students learning in this course as students will learn from each other, drawing on the diverse experiences and interests in the student group, as well as from the course materials.
Ethics & Law in Public Health satisfies the compulsory requirement for an ethics and law component in tertiary studies, for accreditation by the Royal Australasian College of Healthcare Administrators.
- Please see timetables for mode of delivery and attendance requirements.
- Public Health and Health Management Timetables