I. General Information

1. Course Title:
Ethics and Professionalism

2. Course Prefix & Number:
HSER 1116

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 3

Lecture Hours: 3

Lab Hours: 0

4. Course Description:

This course focuses on the legal and ethical dimensions of the role of the human service worker. You will study the boundaries, confidentiality, liability, mandatory reporting, and cultural considerations that can influence legal and ethical responsibilities.

5. Placement Tests Required:

Accuplacer (specify test):

No placement tests required

Score:

6. Prerequisite Courses:

There are no prerequisites for this course.

9. Co-requisite Courses:

There are no corequisites for this course.

II. Transfer and Articulation

III. Course Purpose

1. Program-Applicable Courses – This course fulfills a requirement for the following program(s):

Human Services AAS
Human Services Technician Diploma

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

College-Wide Outcomes/Competencies	Students will be able to:
Apply abstract ideas to concrete situations	Practice boundary setting in role plays.
Apply ethical principles in decision-making	Apply ethical decision-making process when addressing an ethical dilemma.

2. Course Specific Outcomes - Students will be able to achieve the following measurable goals upon completion of the course:

• Describe how ethics influence the care of clients;
• Understand the importance of protecting client confidentiality;
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of appropriate boundaries of the human service worker both online and in person;
• Understand liability and the consequences of disclosure without an appropriate release of information;
• Describe when to make a mandated report;
• Describe the importance of Tarasoff and Duty to Warn;
• Identify biases and values, and how individual’s culture influences their worldview;
• Understand that it is the human service worker's responsibility to establish and maintain healthy boundaries with clients;
• Demonstrate appropriate use of the ethical decision-making process; and
• Identify the power difference in a client realtionship and the importance of balancing power with self-determination.

V. Topical Outline

Listed below are major areas of content typically covered in this course.

1. Lecture Sessions

1. The Role and Influence of the Human Service Worker
2. Ethics: Core to Professional Helping
• A Blending of Art and Science
• The Helping Process
• Process and Response
• Roles in the Helping Relationship
• Defining and Maintaining a Helping Relationship
3. What the Human Service Worker Brings to the Helping Relationship
• Values and Expectations
• Authenticity and Healthy Boundaries
• Competence
• The Ethics of Choice
• Professionalization, Professional Ethics, and Personal Response
• Codes of Ethics
4. Ethical Standards and Guidelines
• Formal Ethical Standards
• Common Concerns and Shared Values Across the Professions
• Informed Consent
• Confidentiality
• Healthy Boundaries for Professional Relationships
5. Ethical Practice in an Increasingly Diverse World
• Prejudice
• Increasing Awareness of Self
• Bias and Blindspots
• Culture, Worldview, and the Nature of Professional Relationship
6. Ethics and Standards of Practice
• Ethics and the Law
• The Helping Process as a Legal Contract
• The Legal Foundation of Ethical Practice
• When Ethics and Legalities Collide
7. Serving the Individual Within a System
8. Ethical Decision-Making
• Codes of Ethics: Guides Not Prescriptions
• Ethical Dilemmas
• Ethical Decision-Making Models
• Integrating Codes, Laws, and Personal-Cultural Values
• An Integrated Approach to Ethical Decision-Making
• Awareness
• Grounding
• Support
• Implementation
9. Applying Ethical Standards
• Informed Consent
• Informed Consent Across the Profession
• Competence
• Comprehension
• Self-Determination
• Working With Minors
• Third-Party Involvement
• Working With the Cognitively Impaired or the Elderly
10. Confidentiality
• Defining Confidential
• Confidentiality Across the Professions
• Limits and Special Challenges to Confidentiality
• Client as Danger to Self or Others
• Mandated Reporting
• Records: Court Ordered
• Confidentiality and Working With Minors
• Confidentiality Online and in Virtual Spaces
• Extending the Duty to Protect and Tarasoff
11. Boundaries and the Ethical Use of Power
• Power Differences and the Responsibility of the Human Services Worker
• Setting and Maintaining Professional Boundaries
• Professional Objectivity
• Transference and Countertransference
• Dual Relationships
• Sexual Intimacy: A Clear Violation of Professional Boundaries
• Legal Decisions
12. Efficacy of Treatment
• Practicing Within the Realm of Competence
• Professional Development
• Supervision and Consultation
• Evidenced Based Practice
• Resource and Referral
13. Evaluation and Accountability
• Monitoring and Evaluating Intervention Effects
• Setting Goals and Objectives
• Measuring Outcome and Goal Achievement
• Record Keeping
14. Ethical Challenges Working With Groups, Couples, and Families
• Competency to Practice
• Identifying the Client
• Informed Consent
• Working With Couples, Families, and Groups
• Confidentiality
15. Competence and the Ethics of Self-Care
• Awareness and Self-Care
• Burnout
• Compassion Fatigue
• Secondary Trauma
• Responding to Impairment