“Biomedical Ethics” is a required philosophy course for my Nursing degree. In this class, we first learn about the foundational theories of philosophy to determine which model we believe our own ethics best follows. Next, our class discussed a series of “hot topic” ethical dilemmas that are common in healthcare and we were prompted to find ways to support and educate our patients if these situations occurred. For example, two of the topics we discussed at length were abortion and euthanasia. Our professor provided a heavy amount of journal articles that covered all sides of these arguments with the most recent data and complete literature reviews. We were also introduced to perspectives from other countries.
The purpose of our lectures was to discuss our interpretations of the articles we read and provide our individual reasoning for which side of the dilemma we stood on. Lectures were organized in a Socratic seminar-style so that our time was spent most wisely. At the end of a unit, we had oral exams with our professor where we were given the opportunity to defend our position in the argument. This was the most beneficial part of the class because we had to memorize as many facts as we could about both sides of the ethical dilemma and be able to spontaneously formulate a convincing argument against our professor. In a way, it was good practice for talking with a patient or their family because it was an entirely organic conversation and I had to make the education of the topic my biggest priority. Also, I greatly enjoyed the class discussions and reading articles with an opposing opinion to mine because it gave me the ability to become more educated and have a more compassionate understanding of why someone may believe differently than I do.
Linked below is a copy of one of my pre-lecture notes for a class discussion in support of abortion. Before every class, I took notes on the article I was reading and wrote questions that I planned to ask in class. Then during class, I would print these notes and annotate them with the answers to my questions as well as include important points made by my peers and professor.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ztSbNUFR0Y8Y4jOnBNBu6i5ZJL0aRwGn-ZpiZG11dAg/edit?usp=sharing