Medical Ethics in the COVID-19 Era ~AND~ Business Aspects of Medicine to Improve Workplace Environment and Enhance Patient Care

Pre-Conference study materials, including, cases and assignments, will be sent to all pre-registered CE attendees prior to the start of the event and at least by May 15, 2022. Cases/Assignments (Assignment 1) provided prior to face-to-face lectures will be discussed in class on June 8, 2022 (Day 1 of CE session)

1. Introductions and course expectations
   • Discussions about Pre-conference cases and assignments (Assignment 1) sent to Pre-registered attendees
2. Ethical Principals and Moral Philosophies
3. COVID-19 and Medical Ethics
   • A critical look from an ethics perspective of how different stakeholders addressed issues pertaining to COVID-19, such as:
     • Patient care;
     • Testing;
     • Vaccine distribution; etc.
   • Roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders
   • Lessons learned from different countries
   • Information, misinformation, and disinformation
   • Case studies, analysis, and discussion
   • ASSIGNMENT 2 – given at the end of lectures to be completed by participants and be ready to present on June 9. If needed, the key presenter of the course will be available to assist and provide guidance to the participants regarding the assignments.
? Day 2

4. Presentation of Assignment 2 by participants with open discussions
5. Workplace Environment and its Impact on Patient Care
   • EMPLOYEE CONFLICT MANAGEMENT & ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH PATIENT CARE
   • Impact of inter-personnel conflict on patient care
   • Correlation between conflict situations and organizational complexity
   • Factors that trigger conflict
   • Conflict between different types of personnel:
   • Physician-physician
   • Physician-nurse
   • Nurse-nurse
   • Department-department
   • Professional disparagement and its impact on patients and care delivery
   • CASE STUDY, ROLE PLAYING exercise, and DISCUSSION
   • PROFESSIONAL/UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR - Expectation of Professionalism from:
     • Healthcare personnel perspective
     • Patient Perspective
     • Family/Guardian/Caregiver Perspective
     • CASE STUDY and DISCUSSION
   • MANAGING COMMUNICATION
     • Ethical dimensions of appropriate communication by medical office staff
     • Value, Issues, and Challenges
     • Types of communication
     • Non-verbal communication
     • Impact on patient/caregiver and their subsequent relationships with health professions
     • Cautions & Precautions
     • CASE STUDY, Role playing excursion, and DISCUSSION
   • MANAGING TECHNOLOGICAL IMPACT ON PATIENT CARE
     • Ethical Challenges due to Increasing interference of technology in patient care and patient data maintenance
     • Cell phones – unauthorized photography and texting
     • Personal computers/tablet PCs – researching and postings
     • CASE STUDY and DISCUSSION related to unethical behaviors pertaining to utilizing cell phones and computers by health professionals
     • The 5-W&H of patient data access
     • Situations of unauthorized patient data access
     • CASE STUDY and DISCUSSION
   • ASSIGNMENT 3 – given at the end of lectures to be completed by participants and be ready to present on June 11. If needed, the key presenter of the course will be available to assist and provide guidance to the participants regarding the assignments.
? Day 3

6. Business Research Techniques and Aspects to Improve Patient Care
7. Presentation of Assignment 3 by participants – with open discussions
8. Social Sciences, Marketing Research Techniques, and Business Strategies to Improving Patient Care
   • The basics of a patient satisfaction survey
   • The 5W&H of understanding the patient and associated environmental issues
   • The role of patient (and caregiver) satisfaction surveys
   • Situations requiring quick survey research – valuing internal versus external surveyors
   • Survey research design, organizing, overseeing, reporting, and understanding
   • Types of data collection techniques
   • Inclusion and exclusion criteria
   • Writing good survey questions – a critical look at a variety of different questions
   • Understanding the report and determining strategies for patient care improvement
   • Ethical issues pertaining to patient/caregiver satisfaction surveys
9. ASSIGNMENT 4, given at the end of lectures to be completed by participants and be ready to present on June 13. If needed, the key presenter of the course will be available to assist and provide guidance to the participants regarding the assignments.
Day 4

10. Presentation of Assignment 4 by participants – with open discussions
11. Ethical Issues Pertaining to Patient Confidentiality & Consent
    • ETHICAL ISSUES - 1: Patient confidentiality and consent
      • Potential compromising situations where patient confidentially can unintentionally be breached:
        • In healthcare institutions/setting
        • By health and non-health personnel
        • In other social settings
      • EXAMPLES and INTERACTIVE CASES
      • Differentiation between types of consent AND assessing consent issues for and about different clients – minors, adults, and elderly
      • CASE STUDIES and ROLE PLAYING exercise
    • ETHICAL ISSUES - 2: Gatekeepers for ethical integrity
      Conflict of interest
      • Whistle-blower
      • Impaired healthcare provider
      • Discrimination
        • Workplace
        • Patient
      • CASE STUDY and DISCUSSION
    • Final Assignment: Course Evaluation