Module PF2700-KP05, PF2200

Duration

2 Semester

Turnus of offer

each winter semester

Credit points

5

Course of studies, specific fields and terms:

• Bachelor of Science in Nursing 2020, compulsory, interdisciplinary comprehensive nursing tasks
• Bachelor Applied Nursing (part-time) 2022, compulsory, interdisciplinary comprehensive nursing tasks
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing 2020, compulsory, interdisciplinary comprehensive nursing tasks
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing 2018, compulsory, interdisciplinary comprehensive nursing tasks
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing 2017, compulsory, interdisciplinary comprehensive nursing tasks
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing 2014, compulsory, interdisciplinary comprehensive nursing tasks

Classes and lectures:

• PF2700-S: Ethical challenges in nursing practice (seminar, 2 SWS)

Workload:

• 30 hours in-classroom work
• 30 hours private studies and exercises
• 90 hours integrated internship hours

Contents of teaching:

• Philosophical fundamentals of ethics and morals
• Ethical principles in the nursing profession and professional conduct in providing health services, including coded standards and values (e.g., Code of Ethics of the International Council of Nurses)
• Evidence-based nursing from an ethical perspective
• Immersion: patient autonomy and right of self-determination: current discourses on ethics, legal developments and policy debates
• Characteristics and conditional factors in situations of ethical conflicts and dilemmas
• Methods and instruments to make ethical decisions in (clinical) situations of conflicts or dilemmas
• Immersion: ethical challenges and appropriate strategies to resolve the care of persons in existentially threatening circumstances or at the end of their life
• In-depth study: Violence in care (frequency, causes and intervention approaches)

Qualification-goals/Competencies:

• Knowledge transfer: the students know and comprehend the basic terminology and commonly accepted theories on ethics and morals.
• Knowledge transfer and immersion: you know and comprehend key standards and values and ethical principles for providing health services in general and for nursing in particular.
• Immersion: you recognize the inherent ethical principles and values of evidence-based nursing.
• Knowledge transfer: you learn the methods to analyze circumstances requiring a decision from an ethical standpoint.
• Knowledge transfer: you know and comprehend the essential traits of ethical conflicts and dilemmas and are familiar with the methods and instruments to make ethical decisions in situations of conflicts or dilemmas.
• Immersion: you gain an overview of current discourses on ethics and developments, as well as political debates on the meaning of patient autonomy and right of self-determination for persons in need of care.
• Immersion: you are familiar with commonly accepted theories and the currently best empirical knowledge on the needs and preferences of persons in need of care, who are in existentially threatening or end-of-life circumstances, and with their relatives and other caregivers. You know and comprehend the ethical and legal framework for making decisions involving existentially threatening or end-of-life circumstances.
• Application competency: you are capable of applying the aforementioned methodology principles to nursing cases, and can accordingly reflect upon these from an ethical standpoint.
• Systemic competency: you are capable of recognizing the information required for appropriate ethical evaluation of nursing conflicts or dilemmas, and can obtain the necessary information to help make an ethical decision.
• Application competency: you integrate ethical standards and values of the nursing profession and those of EbN when nursing and are aware of the ethical implications of your own actions.
• Application and systemic competency: you are aware of your own standards and values, can reflect upon these critically under application of the aforementioned theoretical and methodology fundamentals, and are able to identify and recognize your personal learning and development needs.
• Communicative competency: you can appropriately articulate your own ethical pressures, concerns, or insecurities and apply these constructively to ethics negotiations or decision processes.
• Instrumental, systemic, and communicative competency: when nursing persons in existentially threatening or end-of-life circumstances, you consider individual needs and preferences of the patients and their relatives, and integrate these as best as possible in your care giving decisions. You are empathic and respectful in dealings with patients and their relatives. You are capable of recognizing possible contradictions with your own standards and values or your emotional limits, and can articulate these to the right person to request assistance in your decisions on how to act or care for the patient.

Grading through:

• presentation
• colloquium

Responsible for this module:

• Prof. Dr. Katharina Silies

Teacher:

• Institute for Social Medicine and Epidemiology - Section for Research and Teaching in Nursing
• Institute for History of Medicine and Science Studies
• Prof. Dr. phil. Anne Rahn
• MitarbeiterInnen des Instituts
• Anna Dammermann, M.A.
• Prof. Dr. Katharina Silies

Language:

• German and English skills required

Notes:

Last Updated:

23.06.2025