| Unit name | Contemporary Bioethics |
|---|---|
| Unit code | BRMS30022 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Deans |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
N/A |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
N/A |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
N/A |
| School/department | Bristol Medical School |
| Faculty | Faculty of Health Sciences |
As a doctor, dentist or vet, you will need to make rational moral judgements that you can justify to your patients, the public, your peers and yourself. In this unit you will be introduced to real-life contentious issues that split opinion and test established moral theory, philosophical concepts and legal rules. You will become familiar with key debates and will learn to analyse and construct arguments on all sides. You will become skilled in navigating the territory between philosophical theory and practical moral problems (including being constrained by law), which will ultimately make you better at identifying moral issues in your professional practice and better at working with others to come to justifiable solutions.
During this unit you will build on your learning from TB1, applying your knowledge and analytic skills to practical moral problems. The central subject is healthcare ethics, but you will also explore topics in the wider field of bioethics, for example environmental ethics.
Across both TB2 units there is plenty of scope for you to pursue your interests in a range of topics across healthcare ethics and law. The units have been designed in such a way that, together, they cover learning of a skill set you will be able to draw on in your professional career.
An overview of content
This unit introduces a range of contemporary and contentious issues in healthcare ethics, and bioethics more widely. The exact content will depend on current issues and research in the field. Subjects may include conscientious refusals of practitioners, prenatal genetic diagnosis, end-of-life decision-making for humans and animals, xenotransplantation, and ‘assisted’ self-harm.
The theme of the student conference will primarily be determined by the interests of the group, providing an excellent opportunity to expand your knowledge in a specialist area of interest.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
On completing this unit, you will be well versed in key controversies in bioethics. You will be able to hold your own in discussions about topics you have covered, and also subjects that are new to you, because you will have developed your skills in analysing and constructing arguments. You may change your mind about values you previously held and will better understand the positions of others. You will develop your skills in collaborative work by co-organising and running the student conference. Through the conference, you will start to build connections with people beyond your course, for example guest speakers and delegates who are not on the iBSc Healthcare Ethics and Law programme.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you should be able to
This is a practical ethics unit. Over the course of the unit you will be introduced to several key and contemporary debates in bioethics and will apply your learning to authentic scenarios. In each learning cycle, you will become familiar with contemporary issues through independent reading and seminars with plenty of discussion. You will learn about contemporary debates, and then be given the chance to discuss a realistic problem case in-depth in group deliberation that will mirror professional ethics committees (e.g. clinical ethics committees, animal welfare committees, policy-making bodies). In this way, you will consolidate your topic-based learning, and hone your skills in analysis and synthesis of arguments, to apply these to make judgements about particular cases. The formative in-class discussions will help you prepare for the summative committee report. Through these activities, you will be applying your knowledge to complex real-world challenges and will develop a good command of the theory, language and practice of healthcare ethics.
The unit also includes a student conference, organised by students, and led by your collective interests. It is compulsory that you contribute to the collaborative effort to organise the conference. You will work as a group to decide a conference theme, make contact with guest speakers and organise a conference schedule. You will work collaboratively and regularly throughout the unit to organise the conference with guidance from a member of staff.
You will learn more about current topics in the field through the talks given at the conference, and may engage in discussion with the speakers to help develop your skills in reasoning. The conference is an opportunity to spend a day dedicated to a bioethics topic of your choosing, hearing from experts in the field. The skills you practice in the conference discussions will contribute to your summative written report for the unit, and will also be useful for your written summative assessment in the Preparing for Publication in Healthcare Ethics and Law unit.
As an individual, you will also prepare a poster and an accompanying oral presentation. These tasks mirror roles and activities you can expect to do as a professional with a special interest in ethics.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
The formative tasks are designed to help you see what you are doing well, identify any areas for improvement, and work on making those improvements. The formative assessments are a combination of oral and writing tasks, so you can practice the skills that are tested in summative work. You will use the work you do for the formative assessments to build the knowledge you will draw on for your summative assessments.
Formative tasks, on which you will receive oral and written feedback, include:
In-class discussions of cases: In each learning cycle (e.g. every two weeks) the class will be presented with a realistic case that draws on topics you have learned to date. As a group, you will deliberate to seek a resolution. During this process, you will receive feedback from peers and a member of teaching staff.
Peer teaching, 10 minutes oral presentation: You will be tasked with delivering a presentation on a current bioethics topic. You will design this as a teaching session for your peers, much like peer teaching in professional life. You will receive oral feedback from your peers and a member of staff.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Co-organising student conference: This is an ongoing commitment that will run throughout the unit. You will work as part of the student team, with guidance from a member of staff, to organise and run a student conference. Your level of contribution will be measured by a member of staff, and will be a summative assessment forming 5% of the unit.
Oral poster presentation, 10 minutes: You will present your work in the style of a conference poster presentation, forming 25% of the summative assessment for this unit. Both the poster itself and the oral presentation will contribute to the summative assessment. You will receive written feedback from at least one member of teaching staff.
Written committee report, 2000 words: You will prepare a report on a case you have chosen, forming 70% of the summative assessment for this unit. In the report, you will describe the ethical dimension of the problem and will appraise the different arguments for resolving the problem. You will offer (and defend) your own recommended resolution. The report will include a 250 word lay summary suitable for public communication. You will receive staff feedback on this.
When assessment does not go to plan
If you fail a summative assessment, you would not ordinarily be allowed to re-sit that assessment as all assessments sit in the final year of the programme.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. BRMS30022).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
