The Educational Trends and Current Ethical, Moral, and Legal Issues in Health Workplace Education - Term Paper Example

The educational trends and current ethical, moral, and legal issues Name Institution Date The educational trends and current ethical, moral, and legal issues Summary DF1 DF1 is basically about the concept of online learning in clinical courses. This discussion focuses on the benefits that people get from online learning as well as the challenges, which come with it. For instance, the first posting is about the strategies that may be used to overcome some of the identified challenges of online learning. It is known that online learning has been able to create huge opportunities for effective gaining of knowledge. However, it also has challenges for the learner. From the first posting in DF1, it is evident that one of the major challenges of online learning to the students is the technology itself. Many clinical students are not familiar with the new technology that is implemented to facilitate online learning. The first posting in DF1 acknowledges the fact that getting the ability to effectively use the technology applied in online learning demands prior long period of training and familiarization. For instance, the only way to gain the ability of using a computer in facilitating online is training for it before the time of enrollment into the course (Green, Johnson, Kim & Pope, 2006). Therefore, prior training on using new technology is suggested as the most effective way of succeeding in online learning. Other challenges identified include tension and stress in balancing between the education and other family responsibilities. Such an issue only needs composure and good organization of oneself in order to overcome it. The second posting in DF1 is about the factors that enhance online learning the clinical field. In this posting, it is acknowledged that despite the many advantages of online learning, there are significant hindrances that affect its effectiveness in clinical education. There are also factors that promote the online learning method in clinical teaching. Some of the factors mentioned in this posting include the patient acuity as well as quick turnover, which usually pose both positive and negative effects on the process online learning in clinical teaching. It is mentioned in the posting that high rate of turnover for the staff turnover helps in equipping the clinical student with the requisite experience of working under constantly changing and challenging environments. The third posting in DF1 is about the various innovations that can be applied in the process of learning in order to meet the needs of the modern students. For effective education and training within the healthcare field, the emerging new needs of learners have to be taken into account. These needs can be met through innovations. Modern technology is the most effective method of meeting the new student needs in the ever changing field of healthcare. This posting advises that teachers have to innovate and integrate modern technology in their teaching practice in order to meet the needs of students like reporting to work and handling the family duties. Some of the innovations suggested include tools for easy and convenient online learning. Most of the postings in DF1 are about the use of technology in enhancing online learning. Clinical education is currently highly dependent on the use of online learning method for teaching. This fact is agreeable in all the postings of DF1. The postings agree that online learning has huge benefits for the teachers and learners. However, a number of factors are identified and noted as the main causes of limitations felt when it comes to online learning. The factors identified can be mitigated while the positive ones may be reinforced to have huge results in clinical teaching. DF2 Overall, DF2 is about the ethical issues for the medical practitioners. For instance, the first posting in DF2 is about the ethical issues that usually face people suffering from dementia. According to the points raised in this posting, medical practitioners have to grapple with a number of issues when it comes to patients with dementia, which include sexual behavior in public. The posting identifies relevant ethical principles to be followed by the medical practitioners in the context of the case study referred to in the posting. They include autonomy, beneficence and non-maleficence. The medical practitioner has to allow the patients to make their decisions. The medical practitioner has also to serve the demands of the patient without causing them any harm. The second posting discusses the ethical and legal issues that are applicable in marking the answers of students. Despite the fact that there may be a number of cases where a student is forced to answer a question wrongly because of an inevitable situation beyond her or his control, this posting states that the teacher is not supposed to award any mark based on the humanitarian ground. According to this posting, failing a medical test must be taken as an endangerment to the lives of human beings. This code is the strict ethical and legal requirement for every clinical teacher. The other posting is about ethical issues to be considered when using smartphones in clinical teaching. While using the smartphones, it is important to respect the privacy of the patients. Any action that involves publicizing the private information of the patient must be done only after the consent of him or her. The teacher may be tempted to take a photograph of the patient or learner using the smartphone while teaching. Such actions have to be avoided. The fourth posting is about the usage of mobile phones in the field of healthcare. From this posting, it is clear that mobile phones have found huge relevance in the field of healthcare. Today, mobile phones have many healthcare information applications that help both the patients and the medical practitioners in providing the right medication. Through the mobile phones, medical practitioners can easily get in contact with their patients and given them prescriptions even when separated by very long distance. Mobile phones have diverse applications in the field of healthcare with the main one being easy and convenient communication between the patient and the clinician. The fifth posting is about the ethical and legal issues in cases of harassment within relationships. The main issue in this psychotherapy issue is that the client does not want his case leaked to third parties. Therefore, the very first ethical issue in this case is keeping the information given by the client strictly private and confidential. Moreover, in this case, another ethical issue is respect for the autonomy of the client in terms of withholding some information (Hill, 2006). This posting simply identifies and explains important ethical and legal issues that must be considered in the case study being referred to by the question of discussion. The following posting is about the definition of important mistakes in the field of healthcare. The terms being defined include negligence, malpractice and misconduct. It is explained in this posting that negligence refers to the failure to take necessary steps in preventing a given harm or loss. This definition is within the context of nursing. Malpractice, in healthcare, refers to the provision of substandard treatment to a patient. Misconduct, in nursing, refers to acting in a prohibited manner. This posting gives other two definitions of the same term. Finally, the last posting is also about identifying some of the ethical concerns from the case study presented. Therefore, this posting simply states a number of the wrong things that were done by the medical practitioner in the given case study. It is an application of the discussed ethical and legal considerations that must be made in clinical practice. The posting states areas where the ethics and law of clinical practice was not considered as required. Knowledge Gap The identified trends and ethical issues The postings in both DF1 and DF2 identify various ethical issues, which have a huge impact on my teaching practice. For instance, the need for keeping the privacy of students is an ethical principle that has direct impact on my teaching practice. While teaching the students, I am not supposed to take their personal information to third parties. One of the specific discussions is about the ethics of using smartphones while teaching in the classroom. I learn from the postings that it is unethical to take a photograph of a student and post it to a public website. Another identified ethical issue is the need to serve the student diligently and as required without harming him or her. It is a misconduct to intentionally do an action that is aimed at hurting a student. Moreover, it has been identified that students must be given the autonomy to choose what they like done and reject that which they dislike. Both discussion fora also identified the ethical requirement of seeking consent of the learner before engaging in anything that may offend them. In clinical teaching, it was also noted that marking must be objective. Teachers are not supposed to give a pass mark to a student because of the difficult situation that made him or her deserve a fail mark. In clinical teaching, the tests are quit sensitive hence fail marks should not be tolerated. The rationale behind this ethical requirement is that failing to administer the correct medication to a patient simply leads to death. Therefore, failure is not tolerated in clinical education. All these ethical issues identified are well covered in the existing literature. Research in the field of healthcare education has always stressed the need for privacy when it comes to the confidential information of a patient (MacFarlane, Milliken, Ouellet, Thrasher, Gartner, Harder & Stevenson, 2007). Moreover, the law also provides for this privacy as a legal requirement. Many scholars within the field of education have also emphasized the need for objective teachers who can advance the standard of clinical teaching by awarding pass marks where due. The trend of giving pass marks to students who fail the tests because of humanitarian reasons leads to poor quality of clinical education. It is also important to note that the application of smartphones in learning has been researched widely and relevant ethical issues to be considered established. While using the smartphone, it is not ethical to allow it become a distracter to the whole lesson. For instance, the teacher must refrain from receiving calls or sending messages while teaching. All these identified ethical issues have a very great impact on my teaching practice. The unidentified trends and ethical issues A number of trends and ethical issues remain unidentified in both DF1 and DF2. These ethical issues and trends are very influential in my teaching practice. For instance, the ethical issue of transparency and accountability is not included in both discussion fora. Transparency and accountability affect my teaching practice in the sense that students must be able to understand every action that I take and its intentions. When I hide motives behind some of the actions that I take, students may not trust the whole content and actions of the teaching process. The other vital trend that was not identified is multi-tasking. With the integration of mobile phones in teaching process, the temptation of multi-tasking can affect my concentration on the teaching sessions (Masoorli, 2005). If I engage in activities of sending and receiving tests through the mobile phone while teaching at the same time, my focus on the lesson may disappear hence adversely impact on the outcome of the learning process for the students. Therefore, multi-tasking must be avoided while teaching clinical students. In order to respond to these trends and ethical issues, I will ensure that my mobile phone is on silent mode while teaching so that it does not cause distraction to the students when a person calls or sends text. I will also ensure that it is kept away from my body as long as I am not using it to teach. Moreover, I will always explain every step that I take in the teaching practice to the students so that I enhance accountability and transparency. For instance, when I give a fail mark to a given student, it is prudent that I explain the reason for the failure so that he or she is satisfied with the mark and develops the willingness to correct and learn from the mistake (Nwaze, 2009). How did the discussion forum shape your engagement with the module content to date? My participation in both DF1 and DF2 has really changed my teaching practice. I have gained very effective teaching skills that I will apply in my practice for effective outcomes. I have learnt that online learning is such a phenomenal trend within clinical education and must be approached with caution in order to maximize on its benefits. In future, I plan to improve online teaching practice so that I meet the modern needs of most adult students. Moreover, my future teaching practice will highly benefit from the identified trends and ethical issues to be considered while teaching. Conclusion There are various trends and ethical issues within the field of clinical education that are shaping the form of teaching applied in this field. The advancement of technology has introduced online learning, which is now the common trend in clinical education. However, there are ethical issues to keep in mind while using online teaching technology like the mobile phones. For instance, sharing of the private information of students without their consent is prohibited and unethical. I believe that the insights and knowledge gained from the participation in DF1 and DF2 will go a long way in shaping my future teaching practice. References Green. S., K., Johnson, R., L., Kim, D., & Pope, N., S. (2006). Ethics in Classroom Assessment Practices: Issues and Attitudes. Science Digest, 1000-1011. Hill, K. (2006). Consent, confidentiality and record keeping for the recording and usage of medical images.J Vis Commun Med. 29(2):76–79. MacFarlane, E., Milliken, J., Ouellet, L. L., Thrasher, C., Gartner, J., Harder, N., & Stevenson, K. C. (2007). Overcoming the challenges of providing clinical/practice education. Canadian Nurse, 103(6). Masoorli, S. (2005). Legal issues related to vascular access devices and infusion therapy. Journal of Infusion Nursing, 28(35): 18-21. Nwaze, T. (2009). Management of Examinations: Ethical Issues. African Journals. Read More