PHI 413 Ethical and Spiritual Decision Making in Health Care

The course entails an introduction of Christian foundation for spiritual evaluation and care and focus on ethical decision-making and biomedical ethical principles in the healthcare setting. It will require students to do practice evaluations while proposing holistic interventions that consider the dignity of a human being. That said, the interventions and assessments will contribute to the spiritual and physical well-being of people across their health-illness and life span continuum.

Topic 1: Foundational Issues in Christian Spirituality and Ethics

 Class Introductions

Students will introduce themselves and respond to their classmates on why they are excited to do the course and what they think will be a potential challenge.

Topic 1 DQ 1

The assessment will require students to explain how the Christian spirituality perspective influences them to be compassionate when offering patient care.

Note: Initial posts will be 200 words and responses will be 100-150 words.

Topic 1 DQ 2

The assignment should discuss students’ understanding of compassionate caring that informs their approach to healing and health based on ethics and Christian spirituality perspectives.

Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory

The assessment will require students to complete the “Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory” document. Some prompts they will cover include the Christian perspective relating to the nature of ethics and spirituality, scientism and arguments against it, ultimate reality, the universe’s origin, the meaning of humans, and existence. Also, it will explain the meaning of knowledge and its sources, ethics and their origin, human purpose, and how personal worldview values inform their decision-making process in future or current professional practice.

The paper should have a minimum of 1500 words.

Students should refer to APA guidelines and assignment rubric to successfully complete the assignment.

Topic 2: God, Humanity, and Human Dignity

Topic 2 DQ 1

The paper will explain how the Christian concept of imago dei will inform a rounded perspective of the patient within their society and family.

Topic 2 DQ 2

Students will explain how their worldview of human value impacts their beliefs about bioethical issues, including stem cell research, designer babies, and abortion.

Moral Status: Case Analysis

The assessment will mainly focus on introducing students to human dignity, specifically the Christian perspective of each person’s intrinsic value and worth.

The paper will require students to read “Case Study: Fetal Abnormality” and topic Resources and analyze the moral status case in 1000 words. The paper will cover the Christian view of the nature of a person, theories utilized by people in the case to ascertain the moral status, and how the theories are used to come up with suggestions for action. Also, students will explain the moral status theory person response while integrating the knowledge in the healthcare setting.

Topic 3: Biomedical Ethics in the Christian Narrative

Topic 3 DQ 1

The assignment will require students to refer to their worldview to rank the relevance of each of the four principles in a bid to protect the safety and health of diverse populations.

Topic 3 DQ 2

Students will explain where they would find hope and comfort when sick based on the four parts of the Christian biblical narrative: restoration, redemption, fall, and creation.

Biomedical Ethics in the Christian Narrative: Case Analysis

The assessment will require students to read the “Case Study: Healing and Autonomy” and topic Resources and fill the application of four principles document.

The first part will involve analyzing and filling the case information in a chart based on principles of biomedical ethics, namely justice, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and autonomy.

The second part will be 500 words, and students will answer questions that assess how the four principles approach can be applied based on the Christian worldview.

Students will also refer to chapter 3 of the course book to support their arguments.

Topic 4: Death, Dying, and Grief

Topic 4 DQ 1

The assessment will focus on the student’s clinical experience with the dying. Further, the paper will explain how the student’s experiences shaped their view of death and affected their ability to show empathy.

Topic 4 DQ 2

Students will discuss their opinions on the choice of euthanasia or suicide based on Christianity.

Death and Dying: Case Analysis

The assignment requires students to review the “Case Study: End-of-Life Decisions” and topic resources to complete a 2000-word case analysis.

Prompts to consider in this paper include the Christian view of the fallen world and resurrection Christian worldview of the value of life and suffering. Also, it will cover empathy for people as they are cared for and the implications of respect for people’s perspectives that differ from professional and personal values. Lastly, students will explain how they make decisions based on their worldview.

Some topic 4 resources to refer to include;

Chapter 4 from the textbook Practicing Dignity: An Introduction to Christian Values and Decision-Making in Health Care “Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: Theological and Ethical Responses” “Always Care, Never Kill: How Physician-Assisted Suicide Endangers the Weak, Corrupts Medicine, Compromises the Family, and Violates Human Dignity and Equality”

Topic 5: Intervention and Ethical Decision-Making

Topic 5 DQ 1

Students will differentiate between their definition of spiritual care and the Christian definition.

Topic 5 DQ 2

The assessment will focus on spiritual care and intervention. The paper will then explain how a student can support a patient faced with an ethical dilemma while considering their worldview. It will also prompt the student to assume they were the patient and explain what care they would want to be given.

Patient’s Spiritual Needs: Case Analysis

The assessment will refer to the chart previously completed in Topic 3 about “Case Study: Healing and Autonomy”. The student will then analyze the case study in 1500 words. Some of the prompts to cover include patient autonomy, Christian actions and perspectives on nonmaleficence, principles of beneficence, health, and sickness. Also, the paper will discuss the appropriate interventions and spiritual needs evaluation for care providers. Lastly, the paper will cover accountability that would show an ethical manner that illustrates participatory approach to care, person-centered care and professional standards of practice.

The students must also refer to the assignment rubric and APA guidelines.