Course

Professional Growth III: Nursing Ethics

Important Notice

This course is not active. Please contact Department Chair for more information.

Faculty
Health Sciences
Department
Nursing
Course Code
NURS 3130
Credits
3.00
Semester Length
15
Max Class Size
40
Method(s) Of Instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Typically Offered
To be determined

Overview

Course Description
The major intent of this course is to foster an appreciation among students of the significance of ethics to their professional and personal lives. By examining ethical theories, concepts, principles and decision-making models, participants have the opportunity to develop strategies and techniques for reaching decisions when confronted with ethical problems. This course draws on the combined expertise of nursing and philosophy. It is team taught by a nursing faculty member and a philosophy & humanities faculty member.
Course Content

The focus of this course is applied ethics as it relates to nursing practice.  An outline of the concepts and essential content is presented below.  Additional content may be included, and will vary depending on the experiences, interests and choices of course participants.

Ethical perspectives such as:

  • utilitarianism
  • Kantian deontology
  • moral relativism
  • virtue ethics/care ethics

Concepts such as:

  •  critical thinking
  • advocacy
  • paternalism
  • informed consent
  • honesty
  • moral distress

Principles such as:

  • beneficence/non-maleficence
  • justice
  • fidelity
  • autonomy

Ethical problems in nursing practice (research finding, praxis examples) including

  • changing roles of nurses/added responsibilities
  • inequities in resource allocation/distributive justice/scarcity of resources
  • moral distress of nurses
  • team conflict and values based conflict resolution
  • informed consent
  • prolongation of life and euthanasia

 Decision-Making Models which:

  • empower individuals and families
  • adhere to fundamental principles
  • include relational (fidelity) and contextual (care) elements
  • respect autonomy
  • attend to cultural issues
  • attend to team and family input
  • attend to professional codes and standards of conduct
Learning Activities

Learning activities in this course are designed to actively engage students in achieving an understanding of the concepts, theories and skills of applied ethics in nursing practice.  Students are provided with opportunities to understand ethical decision-making through debate, discussions, case studies, critical reflection, and critical thinking.

Means of Assessment

Course evaluation is consistent with Douglas College Curriculum Development and Approval Policy.  An evaluation schedule is presented at the beginning of the course. There will be a minimum of three assessments which will typically include exams, quizzes, papers and/or presentations. Respect for individual choice and an openness to negotiate will guide decisions about methods of evaluation.

This is a graded course.

Learning Outcomes

In this course students have opportunities to:

  • develop a heightened awareness of the predominance of ethics in their professional and personal lives
  • examine various ethical theories, concepts and principles
  • appreciate the rich complexity of moral reasoning and ethical decision-making
  • develop strategies for ethical decision-making
  • apply ethical decision-making model(s) to ethical problems in nursing practice
Textbook Materials

Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students [and other Learning Resources]

  1.  Praxis Experience
    • personal experience with ethical decision-making
    • nursing practice experience/reflection
  2. Textbooks and Materials to be purchased by Students
    • A list of recommended textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of each semester.
  3. Other Resources
    • selected readings
    • selected audio-visual and computer resources

Requisites

Prerequisites

NURS 2130 (or professional equivalency)

Students in the BSN program are required to maintain a passing grade of C in all courses in order to progress in the program.

Corequisites

NURS 3100 (recommended)

Equivalencies

No equivalent courses.

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer Details for NURS 3130
There are no applicable transfer credits for this course.

Course Offerings

Winter 2025