Category: Ethics

An international project in professional ethics

Mar 23, 2015

in Education, Ethics, Open access, pht402, Physiotherapy, Technology

international online course, open online course, pht402, physiotherapy, professional ethics

Earlier this year I began working with several colleagues on an international module in professional ethics. We’re going to spend 2015 collaboratively designing a module that students from a variety of undergraduate physiotherapy programmes can complete, in both online and face-to-face contexts. The project builds on the work I’ve done previously as part of my PhD research (these notes…
“Eleven hundred hours” – Poem by a student

Aug 13, 2014

in Assessment, Ethics

assessment, ethics, knowledge representation, poem, student

For the past few years I’ve been asking my final year students to develop a learning portfolio as part of the ethics module I teach. Even though I encourage them to use different forms of knowledge representation, few of them take up the offer. However, every now and again someone submits something very different to…
Presentation on an open, online course

Mar 26, 2014

in Conference, Curriculum, Ethics, Physiotherapy, Technology

authentic learning, course, ethics, online, open, peer feedback, physiotherapy, professional

Last year I ran an open online course in Professional Ethics, in collaboration with Physiopedia. Earlier today, I presented the process of designing and implementing that course at a conference on Transforming Education through Technological Innovation, hosted by Stellenbosch University. I really enjoyed the morning and thank the event coordinators for inviting me to present.…
Between Cape Town and Khartoum

Feb 21, 2014

in Curriculum, Ethics, Physiotherapy, Research, Teaching, Workshop

afhad university for women, collaborative research project, ethics, khartoum, physiotherapy, sudan

Earlier this month I spent a week in Khartoum as part of an international exchange programme between the following organisations: University of the Western Cape (my institution in Cape Town) Ahfad University for Women (Khartoum) Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania Bergen University (Norway) FK Norway The project is an attempt to facilitate the exchange…
Developing empathy in clinical education

Oct 7, 2013

in Curriculum, Ethics

clinical education, curriculum design, empathy, ethics, humanities, medical education

This post was originally written for the Clinical Teacher iPad app, and can be downloaded there as well. Introduction Empathy is the ability to understand the emotional context of other people and respond to them appropriately. It has been identified as the cornerstone of the clinician-patient relationship and is recognised as one of the most…
PHT402 Ethics course: Developing an online professional identity

Aug 23, 2013

in Ethics, pht402, Social media, Technology

blogging, clinical education, ethics course, facebook, Online identity, pht402, professional identity, professional presence, social media, twitter

This post was written for the participants of the #pht402 Professional Ethics course. For many of our participants working online has been a new and interesting experience but for most it will probably won’t progress much more than that. This post is intended to highlight how the blogs that have been created as part of…
PHT402: The last independent act?

Aug 20, 2013

in Curriculum, Ethics, pht402, Social media

assisted suicide, ethics, euthenasia, online course, pht402, professional ethics

This is my fifth contribution to a series of weekly posts related to the #pht402 Professional Ethics course. This week’s topic asks if assisted suicide is ever OK? I thought it would be an interesting question to ask health care professionals and students what they thought about the possibility of a legal framework that enabled…
PHT402: What is the value of a human life?

Aug 15, 2013

in Assignments, Curriculum, Ethics, pht402, Physiotherapy

equality, ethics, human life, human rights, judgements, morals, online course, pht402, professional ethics, torture, values

This is my fourth contribution to a series of weekly posts related to the #pht402 Professional Ethics course. This week’s topic is specifically about torture, but the general principle concerns the rights of the individual vs the rights of society, as well as asking about the relative value of a human life. I’m going to…
PHT402: Equality and discrimination

Aug 5, 2013

in Ethics, pht402, Physiotherapy

discrimination, equality, ethics, pht402

This is my third post as a participant in the #pht402 Professional Ethics course. The topic for this week is equality and whether or not we really are equal in a society that discriminates on many levels. It’s important to understand that equal in this context means equal before the law. No-one is suggesting that we…
PHT402 online course accreditation

Aug 3, 2013

in Curriculum, Education, Ethics, Open access, pht402, Physiotherapy

continuing professional development, CPD, ethics, health professions council of south africa, hpcsa, mozilla, open badge, pht402, physiopedia, physiotherapy, professional ethics course, sasp, south african society of physiotherapy

The #pht402 Professional Ethics course has just been accredited by the South African Society of Physiotherapists and Health Professions Council of South Africa for 6 Level 2 Ethics CPD points. If you are a South African physiotherapist and would like to take part in the course, please register here before 9th August. Over the past…
Strategic blogging in the PHT402 Ethics course

Jul 31, 2013

in Ethics, pht402, Social media, Technology

blogging, ethics, online course, pht402, writing

This post is intended for the participants in the #pht402 Professional Ethics course who would like to take a more strategic approach to their blogging. By using a few strategies suggested here, you may find that it’s easier to make the best use of your time when preparing your posts for the course. One of…
PHT402: Morality, belief and behaviour

Jul 29, 2013

in Ethics, pht402, Physiotherapy, Social media, Technology

ethics, moral grey area, morality, online ethics course, pht402

This is my post for the second week as a participant in the #pht402 professional ethics online course. This week we’re exploring the concept of morality and where it comes from, and it’s role in our professional practice. The way that I understand the difference between ethics and morality is that ethics is what guides…
How learning is happening in the PHT402 ethics course

Jul 24, 2013

in Ethics, Learning, pht402, Physiotherapy

consequences, ethics course, interactions, pht402

I wanted to give an example of how interactions in the course are having unintended effects, which is really the whole point of this kind of course. It’s not always evident to participants that their thinking and writing have a real, tangible effect on how others think about the world. The consequences of the things…
Privacy and public discussion in the PHT402 Ethics course

Jul 22, 2013

in Curriculum, Ethics, pht402, Physiotherapy, Social media, Technology

ethics course, patient privacy, personal life, pht402, policies, professional portfolio, social media guidelines

This is a post for participants in the #pht402 Professional Ethics online course being run by the University of the Western Cape and Physiopedia. Since few of our participants have much experience engaging as professionals in online spaces, this post aims to suggest some resources that might be useful in terms of developing skills in…
Constructing a blog post for the PHT402 Ethics course

Jul 19, 2013

in Ethics, pht402, Technology

blogging, design, multimedia, pht402, physiopedia, professional ethics course, writing skills

This is a post for participants in the #pht402 Professional Ethics online course being run by the University of the Western Cape and Physiopedia. Many of our participants have little or no blogging experience, so this post is intended to provide some suggestions and resources that may be useful when learning how to write your…
Navigating the WordPress Reader interface for PHT402

Jul 18, 2013

in Ethics, pht402, Physiotherapy, Social media, Technology

commenting, ethics course, liking, online course, open course, pht402, reblogging, wordpress

This post is is for the #pht402 Professional Ethics course participants who are using WordPress Reader. Hi everyone. For those of you who are using WordPress Reader to follow the posts of other participants, I thought I’d annotate the Reader interface to highlight the components that you might find useful when it comes to interacting…
PHT402: Empathy and professional practice

Jul 17, 2013

in Curriculum, Ethics, pht402, Physiotherapy, Social media

caring, empathy, pht402, professional ethics, professional practice, relationships, sharing

This is my first post for the #pht402 professional ethics course that I’m participating in for the next few weeks. The topic for the first week is to explore personal objectives related to empathy and professional practice in the health care context. I’ve been teaching the Professional Ethics course at UWC for five years and…
Following participants in the PHT402 Ethics course

Jul 10, 2013

in Ethics, pht402, Social media, Technology

digg reader, feedly, liferea, netvibes, offline access, opml, rss reader, wordpress reader

Many of the participants in the #pht402 Professional Ethics course have never blogged before and are only casual users of services like Twitter. This post aims to suggest some of the ways that participants can follow each other using a variety of services and programmes. In addition, I’ve also suggested another option for RSS reader…
PHT402 Professional Ethics course introduction

Jul 8, 2013

in Ethics, Learning, pht402, Social media, Technology

ethics course, intrduction, pht402, professional ethics

Introduction for the PHT402 Professional Ethics course that is due to begin in about a week. The course is being run at the University of the Western Cape, in conjunction with Physiopedia and aims to explore different ways of developing generic attributes that are relevant for ethical professional practice in the healthcare professions. Hi everyone.…
Open, online course on Professional Ethics

Jul 1, 2013

in Curriculum, Ethics, pht402

course, ethics, online, open, pht402

I’ve been wanting to run an open, online course for a while and have finally managed to put something together in collaboration with Physiopedia. I’m interested in exploring new conceptions of curriculum and what it means to teachers and learners when we do something different. How would learning change if the learners decided on the…