HA3300D – Healthcare Policy and Ethics

Assignment 10: Code of Ethics

Directions

In this assignment, you’ll take on the role of a healthcare administrator whose job it is to write a professional code of ethics for your organization. You can select the type of organization you’re most familiar with. For example, hospital, clinic, nursing home, or HMO, to name a few as the audience for your policy. Keep in mind that the type of organization you’re writing for will affect what you must address in your policy.

Step 1
Begin by reviewing at least three examples of real health care organizations’ codes of ethics. You can use some you’ve already seen in this course’s Learning Plans (for example, ACHE’s or the Public Health Code of Ethics), or locate a few on your own. Your reference list should include a citation for each example you looked at.

Step 2
Write a professional Code of Ethics for your organization, modeling it on the codes you have reviewed. Include at least 1 element from each example code you looked at. For example, the Public Health Code of Ethics includes a section explaining its development process. Other ethics codes include instructions about what to do if an employee sees a breach of ethics. These are just two examples of elements you might include in your own code.

Include at least 6 ethical guidelines your organization will follow, plus a brief (2-3 sentence) explanation of why you have included each one.

Step 3
Below your Code of Ethics, write an 8-10 sentence paragraph that explains the relationship between a Code of Ethics and moral integrity.