Online Continuing Education Courses

• Describe three basic legal concepts that led to the doctrine of informed consent.
• Describe three approaches to determining the disclosure standard for judging that a patient or client has been informed.
• Discuss three major aspects of the process of obtaining informed consent.
• Distinguish "general consent" from "special consent" documents.
• Differentiate between the never-competent and once-competent patient or client and the challenges posed by each in regard to informed consent.
• Compare informed consent as it is used in health care practice and in human studies research.
• Describe some considerations one must always take into account to be sure one is being culturally competent and honoring cultural difference when informed consent is the standard.

• Define the terms confidential information and confidentiality.
• Identify the relationship of a patient's legal right to privacy with his reasonable expectations regarding confidential information.
• Describe how the telling and keeping of secrets is relevant to understanding the importance of confidentiality.
• Discuss the ethical norms involved in keeping and breaking professional confidences.
• Name five general legal exceptions to the professional standard of practice that confidences should not be broken.
• Consider practical options that a professional can take when faced with the possibility of breaking a confidence.
• Discuss some important aspects of documentation that affect confidentiality.
• Compare ethical issues of confidentiality traditionally conceived with those that have arisen because of computerized medical records and patient care information systems.
• Describe the key ethical strengths and challenges of the recent U.S. federal regulations related to privacy considerations (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996).
• Become familiar with AOTA and APTA Code of Ethics
• Review and become familiar with the TX PT Rules
• Read case scenarios illustrating ethical decision making

• Identify six steps in the analysis of ethical problems encountered in everyday professional life and how each plays a part in arriving at a caring response.
• Describe the central role of narrative and virtue theories in gathering relevant information for a caring response.
• List four areas of inquiry that will be useful when gathering relevant information to make sure you have the story straight.
• Describe the role of conduct-related ethical theories and approaches in arriving at a caring response.
• Describe why imagination is an essential aspect of seeking out the practical alternatives in an ethically challenging situation.
• Discuss how courage assists you in a caring response.
• Identify two benefits of taking time to reflect on and evaluate the action afterward.
• Become familiar with AOTA and APTA Code of Ethics
• Become familiar with the Guide to Professional Conduct for PT's

• Identify the goal of professional ethics activity.
• Describe the basic idea of a caring response and some ways this response in a professional relationship is distinguished from expressions of care in other types of relationships.
• Identify three component parts of any ethical problem.
• Describe what an agent is and, more importantly, what it is to be a moral agent.
• Name the three prototypical ethical problems.
• Describe the role of emotions in ethical distress.
• Distinguish between two varieties of ethical distress.
• Compare the fundamental difference between ethical distress and an ethical dilemma.
• Define ethical paternalism or parentalism.
• Describe a type of ethical dilemma that challenges a professionals desire (and duty) to treat everyone fairly and equitably.
• Identify the fundamental difference between distress or dilemma problems and locus of authority problems.
• Identify four criteria that will assist you in deciding who should assume authority for a specific ethical decision to achieve a caring response.
• Become familiar with AOTA and APTA Code of Ethics
• Become familiar with the Guide to Professional Conduct for PT
• Indiana PTs - become familiar with the IN PT Rules and Practice Act
• Texas PTs - become familiar with the TX PT Rules and Practice Act
• Utah PTs - become familiar with the UT PT Rules and Practice Act

• Define morality and ethics and distinguish between the two
• Describe three moralities that health professionals must integrate into their own moral life
• Identify some major sources of moral beliefs in Western societies
• Distinguish between an ethical issue and ethical problem
• List three ways that ethics is useful in everyday professional practice
• Describe what material cooperation entails
• Identify some mechanisms available to protect the personal moral convictions of health professionals

Hour 1

• Define Ethics
• Review various ethical issues recently reported on
• Identify ethics as related to the whistleblower
• Discuss Ethical standards specific to laws in various states

Hour 2

• Discuss Ethical standards specific to laws in various states (cont’d)
• Summarize awareness related to anti-discrimination
• Classify various aspects of professional boundaries and sexual misconduct

• Identify challenging/inappropriate patient requests and behaviors encountered by chiropractors.
• Explain prevention strategies, office procedures and effective responses to inappropriate patient activity.
• Describe safety concerns associated with a patient's inappropriate acts and communications, as well as ethical principles related thereto.
• Illustrate legal and ethical issues arising where the doctor/patient relationship is terminated due to inappropriate patient behavior.
• Analyze how aberrant patient behavior presents risks to staff, the treating doctor, and to fellow patients, and how proper documentation is important in such instances.

• Identify legal prohibitions against promising healthcare cures, guaranteeing treatment results, and deceptive patient communication.
• Distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate communication relating to patients' healthcare prognoses and progress.
• Explain scientific literature linking patients' mental states with healthcare outcomes.
• Demonstrate alignment between compliance with states' current patient communication restrictions and instances of patient encouragement that foster mental states favorable to desired healthcare outcomes.
• Explain office procedures and staff training which are likely to ensure ongoing ethical patient communication and the documentation thereof.

• Recognize the legal and ethical implications of billing, collections, fees, bartering, and financial gain
• Navigate the tricky waters of appropriate interaction with vendors/suppliers.
• Understand the fiduciary relationship that governs patient-doctor interactions.
• Grade your role as the chiropractor in all professional inter-relationships, including staff, patients, peers.
• Use self-assessment techniques to stay compliant in all areas of ethics and boundaries.

• Differentiate between assault and battery
• Outline various kinds of legal problems that may result from sexual impropriety claims
• Identify and describe distinctions between innocent flirtatious behavior and sexual misconduct
• Evaluate possible defenses to sexual misconduct Disciplinary complaints
• Discuss the applicability of the transference phenomenon to Doctors of Chiropractic

• Determine how critical it is for us to take excellent are of ourselves
• Indicate the ways in which we can stay healthy physically, mentally and emotionally
• Examine the impact of stress on providers
• Recognize the issue of burnout
• Demonstrate the fiduciary duty that providers have

• Demonstrate the importance of communicating in an ethical manner and what that entails
• Develop an understanding of what 'spin' is, why it is unethical and how to monitor and minimize/stop it
• Evaluate the barriers to effective and ethical communication
• Develop an understanding of exactly what takes place/needs to take place during the provider/client interaction
• Discover what it is that patients want from their visits to a provider
• Appraise how to deal with challenging clients and situations
• Discover how to become a skilled helper by studying the tools of communication
• Apply listening skills to the provider's repertoire
• Demonstrate the importance of the impact of nonverbal communication on the caregiver/client relationship
• Develop, analyze and apply the verbal and nonverbal skills that will help to gather information and support the patient effectively
• Write an Ethical Communication Protocol (EPC) for your practice