Please let your students know about our 2-credit graduate special topics course offered spring quarter by the Department of Bioethics & Humanities.
When Life Makes You Sick: Ethics and the Social Determinants of Health (SLN:19626) Wednesday evenings, 5:30 -7:20p
Course Description: This course engages students in ethical questions that confront frontline health care providers in medicine, dentistry, public health, and social work who serve poor and minority patient populations. Using literature from social epidemiology and bioethics as well as film and case studies, the course examines the ethical implications of the social determinants of health for health care providers and systems. Topics will range from clinicians’ duties and patient responsibilities, to controversial disease prevention programs and policies, to broader questions of social justice. The course is organized around case studies and driven by small group discussions.
Course Objectives: By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Describe the social determinants of health and the social gradient in health
2. Explain how social determinants impact human health and show up in clinical encounters
3. Use the social determinants to frame and analyze ethical issues related to: -the clinical encounter and clinician-patient relationship, clinician duties and patient responsibilities -resource allocation, -the delivery of care, -health promotion and disease prevention policy
4. Identify ethical strategies for caring for disadvantaged patient populations
To enroll, or for inquiries, send your name and student number to bhadds@uw.edu.
