Syllabus
The course is concerning the basics of philosophy, medical ethics, medical psychology, sociology, introduction to humanities and social sciences related to medicine and healthcare.
Students are introduced to psychological thinking in medicine, especially in medical practice. The goal of the lectures is to create a sufficient ethical reflection of various contemporary issues. While there are many such issues, we concentrate on topics concerning access to patient autonomy and informed consent, disability and biomedical enhancements, genetic testing, and reproductive ethics, human dignity, doctors and their role, evidence-based medicine, palliative medicine.
Annotation
It is a compulsory study subject, which belongs to the subjects of profiling basis. By completing it, the student acquires knowledge and skills in the field of bioethics and psychology in health care, which are a prerequisite for further successful study in higher years.
A holistic approach to the patient in the pursuit of his/her health includes not only the somatic dimension but also other dimensions (e.g. psychological, social, ethical), which are the focus of this course. Within the psychological dimension, students will be introduced to general (e.g., basic psychological phenomena), clinical psychology (e.g., disorders of emotion and behavior), personality psychology (e.g., intersubjective differences in personality structure), and psychosomatics.
Within the social and ethical dimension, students will learn in particular about basic dilemmas concerning the life of the individual (e.g. birth, death, resource allocation, organ donation) and about legal and ethical standards in the provision of health care (e.g. informed consent, the institution of advance directives, principles of medical ethics). In this course, increased emphasis is placed on considering all dimensions (i.e., somatic, psychological, social, ethical) simultaneously through critical work with ethically controversial case studies drawn from the Czech health care system.
Patient Centred Care (PCC) represents a shift in healthcare delivery where healthcare professionals should take significant account of the needs of their patients. In this course, students will learn about the psychosocial needs of patients, including their family systems.
These needs are shaped and evolve with respect to sociodemographic criteria (e.g., age, gender, religion, ethnicity), psychosocial development (e.g., childhood, old age, gender), or value systems (e.g., normative ethics, current legislation). For physicians, the above-mentioned developments are compounded by the maxim to provide health care lege artis (e.g., informed consent, advance directives, code of ethics) in an effort to identify and articulate the needs of their patients in accordance with the principles of medical ethics of nonmaleficence, beneficence, autonomy, and justice).
The goal is to jointly develop a treatment plan for the patient while making every effort to meet the patient's needs (he/she knows best what he/she wants) and maintaining all standards for health care delivery (the physician should know best how to achieve this). This goal is most easily achieved in the context of an excellent doctor-patient relationship (e.g., trust, empathy, truthful information).