HSC 500:  Health, Sciences and Society

Spring, 2006

Course Objectives

COMMUNICATION

By the end of the session, the students will be able to:

1)      identify at least four basic characteristics of interpersonal communication

2)      identify at least three elements of communication pathways

3)      identify four basic components of group process

4)      list and describe at least four roles occupied by members of a group.

HEALTH ECONOMICS

By the end of the session, the students will be able to:

1)      identify factors which have led to changes in the health care marketplace

2)      explain how it is possible that we are spending 14% of our economic resources on health care yet over 40 million are uninsured

3)      describe the changes in the health care marketplace and the impact on health care delivery.

SCOPE OF PRACTICE

By the end of the session, the student will be able to:

1)      identify factors driving the debate on scope of practice

2)      identify regulating issues relating to scope of practice

3)      describe issues that will influence future debates on scope of practice.

ETHICS

By the end of the session, the student will be able to:

1)      Identify and clarify ethical issues in a wide variety of health related situations - clinical as well as institutional, individual as well as collective.

2)      Recount and explain basic ethical principles as they apply to health care situations.

3)      Relate ethical principles and reasoning to important law - court decisions, legislation and regulations.

4)      Identify and use the perspectives of your own and of other health care professions in health care decision making.

5)      Identify and use the perspectives of your own and other cultures in health care decision making.

6)      Describe and use listening, responding, negotiating and reasoning skills in addressing ethical questions in health care.

MEDICAL INFORMATICS - TELEHEALTH

By the end of the session, the students will be able to:

1. list the different applications of healthcare/medical informatics.
2. define decision support systems, telemedicine, the electronic medical record, disease management and patient-centered electronic-health or e-health.
3. understand the need of putting telehealth into ambulatory care settings
4. describe economic benefits of telehealth

POLICY IN HEALTH CARE

By the end of the session, the students will be able to:

1.                  Review and discuss “Healthy People 2010”, looking at how it impacts health in the communities we serve.

2.                  Identify and discuss medical errors and possible ways of preventing them in our delivery of health care.

3.                  Discuss the Privacy Rule and how it affects policy and delivery of health care.

LEGAL ISSUES

By the end of this session, the students will be able to:

1. describe the structure of the legal system
2. recount the steps in a law suit in general and a malpractice claim in particular
3. describe the major areas of health law
4. define the elements of "informed consent" and the role of the health care team in obtaining it
5. define "standard of care" and list sources of the "standards."

PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY RESPONSE

      1.   Discuss the Federal Response Plan (FRP)

      2.   Identify resources available to local governments during an emergency

            or major disaster declaration.

      3.   Discuss the implications of a smallpox vaccination program with respect to:

·        Communications

·        Health Economics

·        Scope of Practice

·        Ethics

·        Public Health Emergency Response