Ethics and Code of Conduct in Healthcare

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Author: Barbara Cebulski, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM
Reviewers: Laurie Bjerklie, MA, MLS(ASCP)CM and Julie Ann West, PhD (CPH [NBPHE]), MLS(ASCP)CMSMCM

In the healthcare environment, upholding the mission to care for patients while maintaining high ethical standards and abiding codes of conduct is paramount. This course is designed to guide healthcare employees on the importance of ethics and code of conduct by outlining privacy and patient health information regulations, conflict of interest, professional competence, effective communication, and more. Real-world scenarios are presented for employee response training which allows for maximum comprehension of the rules and guidelines that employees must follow. This course includes both ungraded practice questions and an assessment exam upon completion.

Continuing Education Credits

Objectives

  • Define ethics and list issues where healthcare workers may need to make ethical decisions.
  • Discuss patient privacy and confidentiality of protected health information (PHI), as well as the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
  • Define conflict of interest and list examples.
  • Describe what is meant by the phrases: code of conduct, policies versus procedures, professional competence, communication, and corrective actions.
  • Discuss professional (versus unprofessional and reckless) behaviors.
  • Explain the intent and mechanism of a whistleblower policy.

Course Outline

  • Overview
      • Introduction
      • Background
  • Ethics in Healthcare
      • Definition of Ethics
      • Ethical Issues in Healthcare
    • Allocation of Resources
      • Allocation of Resources
      • Your department supervisor has informed you that the budget for your department supplies has been frozen and is encouraging everyone to limit resource...
    • Privacy and Confidentiality of Patient Information
      • Privacy and Confidentiality
      • True or False: As health care professionals, you are responsible for protecting all health information in your possession, sharing it only with those ...
    • Protected Health Information
      • Protected Health Information
      • Examples of PHI include all of the following, except:
    • HIPAA Privacy Rule
      • HIPAA
      • You work in the emergency department (ED) of the local hospital. A woman from your neighborhood is brought by ambulance to the ED. That night, another...
    • De-identification of Patient Information
      • De-identification
      • De-identification refers to:
    • Conflict of Interest
      • Conflict of Interest
      • You are the manager of diagnostic imaging at a hospital that is part of a healthcare system. You have been asked to present on the topic of emerging t...
  • Code of Conduct
      • What is a Code of Conduct?
      • A code of conduct is:
    • Policies and Procedures
      • Policies and Procedures
      • Which statement is true of a policy?
    • Professional Competence
      • Professional Competence
      • A new piece of equipment has been introduced into your laboratory department. The equipment will be used to perform patient testing. What are your obl...
    • Communication
      • Communication
      • You work as a phlebotomist in an outpatient clinic. Several employees have called out sick, leaving you and one of your colleagues with the responsibi...
    • Responding to Occurrences and Documentation of Corrective Actions
      • Occurrences and Corrective Actions
      • In healthcare, what is an occurrence?
  • Professional Behaviors
      • Professional Characteristics and Behaviors
      • Reporting Reckless or Unethical Behavior
      • Whistleblower Policy
      • You have been working the night shift as a laboratory employee in the local hospital for three weeks. On the patient floor, you notice a patient call ...
      • You work in the laboratory's outpatient registration department. One of the quality initiatives for your department is the improvement in wait time fr...
  • References
      • References

Additional Information

Level of Instruction: Basic
Intended Audience: All healthcare professionals who, either directly or indirectly, impact patient care.
Author Information: Barbara Cebulski, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM, has over 40 years of experience in the medical laboratory profession as a technologist, section supervisor, and laboratory manager. She was an Inspection and Technical Specialist for nine years with the College of American Pathologists in the Laboratory Accreditation Program and, until her retirement in 2015, was Program Director for MediaLab. Barbara holds a Master's in Instructional Technology from Georgia State University.
The author has no conflict of interest to disclose.
Reviewer Information: 
Laurie Bjerklie, MA, MLS(ASCP)CM, is a Lead Education Developer. She earned a B.S. in Medical Laboratory Science from the University of North Dakota and an M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from Saint Xavier University. She has over 15 years of experience in higher education and has held program director and faculty positions in both MLT and MLS programs.
Dr. Julie Ann West is certified by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) as a Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS) and as a Specialist in Microbiology (SM). In addition, Dr. West has earned a Ph.D. in Public Health - Infectious Disease Epidemiology - and is Certified in Public Health (CPH) by the National Board of Public Health Examiners. Dr. West is experienced as a Technical Specialist, Safety Officer, Educator, and Lead in the Veterans Administration Healthcare System, and has prior experience as an Administrative Laboratory Director.

This course is part of:
Compliance & CE
Mandatory Annual HR Courses
Histology CE
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