Unit Outline

This unit allows students to examine the link between ethics, legislation and governance. The unit will investigate the need for ethics to inform legislation, the translation of that legislation into policy, and how policy is enacted through governance. The unit presents the fundamentals of health sector governance in a cross-disciplinary way by integrating legal, management, administration, social-cultural and financial issues and policy perspectives. The ethical principles germane to clinical practice, research, and quality improvement processes will also be covered. Current issues will be assessed including debates associated with end-of-life care, fertility, rationing of resources, regulation of clinical practices and risk management. Students will have opportunities to hear from experts across Australia and participate in industry case studies and analyse.

Refer to the Unit schedule in MyLO to note Teaching Pattern information.

Intended Learning Outcomes

As per the Assessment and Results Policy 1.3, your results will reflect your achievement against specified learning outcomes.

On completion of this unit, you will be able to:


1.	Appraise health ethics and law requirements and formulate strategies to address these from a management perspective.
2.	Evaluate governance structures, policies and processes with a comparative view of other jurisdictions.
3.	Compare health ethics and law requirements, in national and international contexts, to provide accessible and equitable services.
4.	Assess the role of governance for strategic objectives in health e.g. cost-effectiveness, quality and safety in care delivery through performance, collaboration and openness.
5.	Summarise the social and ethical considerations when managing health organisations.

Alterations as a result of student feedback

To Be Determined.

How will I be Assessed?

For more detailed assessment information please see MyLO.

Assessment schedule


ASSESSMENT TASK #	ASSESSMENT TASK NAME	DATE DUE	WEIGHT	LINKS TO INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Assessment Task 1:	Presentation	Refer to Assessment Description	20 %	LO1, LO3, LO5
Assessment Task 2:	Essay	Refer to Assessment Description	40 %	LO1, LO2, LO4, LO5
Assessment Task 3:	Report	Refer to Assessment Description	40 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5

Assessment details

Assessment Task 1: Presentation

Task Description:

Family’s visit to a patient in a hospital can involve ethical considerations regarding management of patients, patients’ family, and other stakeholders in the health system. In this assessment, you will analyse relevant ethical principles (for example, justice, respect for autonomy, and non-maleficence) about family’s visit to in-patient/s in a hospital, from the perspectives of patients, their family members and patient care providers. The analysis will be presented to the healthcare management team, so that the hospital can implement appropriate in-patient visitation practices.

Task Length:

13-14 minutes, Embedded continuous voice presentation in PowerPoint format

Due Date:

Refer to Assessment Description

Weight:

20 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Identified and outlined background information about ethical issues in family’s visitation of patients in a hospital setting.	LO1
2	Justified application of principles of ethics in management of patient, patients' family and patient care providers regarding family’s visit in a hospital setting.	LO5
3	Compared the role of ethics and law in management of patient, patient’s family, and service providers regarding family’s visit in hospital settings between developed versus developing country.	LO3
4	Supported the presentation with evidence, reflecting knowledge of health ethics and law requirements when managing interactions between patient, patient family, and patient care providers in hospital settings.	LO1
5	Composed a power-point presentation with embedded voice, reflecting on social and ethical considerations when managing interactions between patient, patient family and patient care providers in hospital settings.	LO5

Assessment Task 2: Essay

Task Description:

Care workers face challenging work health and safety issues as they take care of health and daily living needs of individuals in a health and social care setting. In this assessment, you will analyse ethical, legal, and governance constructs of a health and social care organisation regarding care workers’ work health and safety. Based on the analysis, you will make recommendations to improve organisational governance practices for better work health and safety of care workers. The analysis and the recommendations should be presented in an essay format to a healthcare management team.

Task Length:

3,000 words +/- 10% of the stated word count.

Due Date:

Refer to Assessment Description

Weight:

40 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Summarised and argued importance of work health and safety for care workers in health and social care organisations.	LO1
2	Explained ethical obligations and governance structure of a health and social care organisation regarding their care workers’ work health and safety.	LO2
3	Explained legal obligations and governance structure of a health and social care organisation regarding their care workers’ work health and safety.	LO2
4	Justified recommendations to improve organisational governance practices, addressing ethical and legal issues regarding care workers’ work health and safety.	LO4
5	Concluded an integrated view about a health and social care organisation’s role and required governance practices to ensure care workers work health and safety.	LO4
6	Supported the essay with evidence, reflecting on knowledge of social, ethical, and legal considerations when formulating strategies for work health and safety.	LO5
7	Composed an academic report, reflecting on knowledge of social, ethical, and legal considerations when formulating strategies for work health and safety.	LO5

Assessment Task 3: Report

Task Description:

Patient safety incident reporting is a critical mechanism to ensure appropriate learning systems for continuous improvement in clinical governance. In this assessment, you will analyse a patient safety incident and make recommendations for better management of patient safety incident reporting and learning system. The analysis and the recommendations should be presented in a report format to a management team in a health and social care organisation.

Task Length:

3,000 words +/- 10% of stated word count.

Due Date:

Refer to Assessment Description

Weight:

40 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Summarised the practices of patient safety incident reporting and learning system in different health and social care organisation settings.	LO3
2	Discussed organisational governance structure and processes to report a specific patient safety incident.	LO2
3	Explained necessary actions regarding management of a specific patient safety incident, enhancing reporting environment, clinical governance and other relevant organisational issues.	LO1
4	Argued how certain actions regarding patient safety incident management can provide better organisational and patient outcomes.	LO4
5	Concluded an integrated view about challenges and opportunities of patient safety incident reporting and learning system in health and social care organisations.	LO1
6	Supported the report with evidence, reflecting knowledge of social, ethical, and legal considerations when formulating strategies for patient safety incident reporting and learning system.	LO5
7	Composed an academic report, reflecting knowledge of social, ethical, and legal considerations when formulating strategies for patient safety incident reporting and learning system.	LO5

How your final result is determined

To pass this unit, you need to demonstrate your attainment of each of the Intended Learning Outcomes, achieve a final unit grade of 50% or greater, and pass any hurdle tasks.

Submission of assignments

Where practicable, assignments should be submitted to an assignment submission folder in MYLO. You must submit assignments by the due date or receive a penalty (unless an extension of time has been approved by the Unit Coordinator). Students submitting any assignment in hard copy, or because of a practicum finalisation, must attach a student cover sheet and signed declaration for the submission to be accepted for marking.

Academic integrity

Academic integrity is about acting responsibly, honestly, ethically, and collegially when using, producing, and communicating information with other students and staff members.

In written work, you must correctly reference the work of others to maintain academic integrity. To find out the referencing style for this unit, see the assessment information in the MyLO site, or contact your teaching staff. For more detail about Academic Integrity, see Important Guidelines & Support.

Requests for extensions

If you are unable to submit an assessment task by the due date, you should apply for an extension.

A request for an extension should first be discussed with your Unit Coordinator or teaching support team where possible. A request for an extension must be submitted by the assessment due date, except where you can provide evidence it was not possible to do so. Typically, an application for an extension will be supported by documentary evidence: however, where it is not possible for you to provide evidence please contact your Unit Coordinator.

The Unit Coordinator must notify you of the outcome of an extension request within 3 working days of receiving the request.

Late penalties

Assignments submitted after the deadline will receive a late penalty of 5% of the original available mark for each calendar day (or part day) that the assignment is late. Late submissions will not be accepted more than 10 calendar days after the due date, or after assignments have been returned to other students on a scheduled date, whichever occurs first. Further information on Late Penalties can be found on the Assessments and Results Procedure.

Review of results and appeals

You are entitled to ask for a review of the marking and grading of your assessment task if there is an irregularity in the marking standards or an error in the process for determining the outcome of an assessment. Details on how to request a review of a mark for an assignment are outlined in the Review and Appeal of Academic Decisions Procedure.

Required Resources

Required reading materials

There is no prescribed text or software for this unit. The learning materials of the unit will be drawn from publications, journal articles and other credible sources/websites. You will be able to access the learning materials through the Learning Content section of the MyLO unit. Journal articles and other readings will be made available throughout the semester via MyLO.