HSS 110 - Ethics In Health & Human Services

Credits: 5
LEC hours per week: 5
Students will practice upholding ethical and professional standards within human services such as accurately and honestly documenting interactions with clients, protecting client confidentiality, and maintaining professional boundaries with clients and coworkers. Contemporary issues, trends, legal aspects, and ethics will be discussed in an integrated approach. Students will also review the roles, functions, and legal/ethical responsibilities of health and human service professionals.
Course Outcomes:

Identify ethical conflicts and dilemmas in human service organizations and relevant professional codes of ethics.
Apply principles of professional and ethical standards, confidentiality, sensitivity when working with diverse populations, and responsibility to self and others within the human services field.
Evaluate legal issues in human services and areas where improvement in the law is needed with strategies for achieving these improvements.

Course Topics:

Difference between ethics and the law
Professional standards and legal mandates
Federal and state laws and regulations related to human services
Client confidentiality
Professional boundaries
The influence of values and beliefs on practice
Workplace ethics and professional conduct in a human services setting
Issues facing human service workers, clients, and agencies
Documentation rules and guidelines