Violence in Medicine: Necessary and Unnecessary, Intentional and Unintentional- An Ethics Course (1 credit hour)
Program Summary: This course explores the concept of violence in medicine and healthcare. Examples may include violence to the body (cancer treatments, dissection, surgery), structural violence (under-resourced patients), violence in language (illness is war, fight), or demeaning interactions (patient is non-compliant). The course examines how the construct of medicine as savior affects the ethical principles of beneficence, autonomy, informed consent, decision-making, futility, and dignity. Alternative metaphors for treatment are offered.
This course is recommended for medical social workers and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice. This course is not recommended for NBCC ethics credit.
Course Reading: “Violence in medicine”: necessary and unnecessary, intentional and unintentional by Johanna Shapiro, Department of Family Medicine, UC Irvine School of Medicine
Publisher: Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine
Course Objectives: To enhance professional practice, values, skills and knowledge by exploring the concept of violence in medicine and healthcare.
Learning Objectives: Describe the continuum of violence in medicine and give examples. Identify alternative linguistic metaphors for treatment. Describe how the concept of medicine as savior affects ethical principles.
Review our pre-reading study guide.
Free State Social Work, LLC, provider #1235, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 9/6/2021 - 9/6/2024. Social workers completing this course receive 1 continuing education credit.
Free State Social Work has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP NO. 6605. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Free State Social Work is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
G.M. Rydberg-Cox, MSW, LSCSW is the Continuing Education Director at Free State Social Work and responsible for the development of this course. She received her Masters of Social Work in 1996 from the Jane Addams School of Social Work at the University of Illinois-Chicago and she has over 20 years of experience. She has lived and worked as a social worker in Chicago, Boston, and Kansas City. She currently practices in the area of hospital/medical social work. The reading materials for this course were developed by another organization.