LWQ635 Aged Care Law, Ethics and Culturally Safe Practice
To view more information for this unit, select Unit Outline from the list below. Please note the teaching period for which the Unit Outline is relevant.
| Unit code: | LWQ635 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Timetable | Details in HiQ, if available |
| Availabilities |
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| CSP student contribution | $2,174 |
| Pre-2021 CSP student contribution | $1,703 The pre-2021 commonwealth supported place (CSP) contribution amount only applies to students enrolled in a course prior to 2021. To learn more, visit our Understanding your fees page. |
| Domestic tuition unit fee | $3,912 |
| International unit fee | $5,664 |
Unit Outline: Session 1 2026, QUT Online, Online
| Unit code: | LWQ635 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
Overview
This unit addresses a range of legal, ethical and social issues currently faced by the aged care profession, older persons, their carers and families within the health system. Australia’s ageing population means there is a growing need for health care services to respond to the holistic needs of the elderly, in a way that ensures culturally safe, person-centred care. Specifically, this unit will provide students with an opportunity to increase their understanding of, and critically evaluate, the rights and responsibilities of both older people and professionals and consider relevant ethical implications and how they might be navigated.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Develop professional knowledge and skills to understand and respond to select legal and ethical challenges faced by the elderly.
- Develop understanding of the principles of cultural safety and their application in professional practice through reflection on personal, professional and organisational cultures and a critical analysis of the social determinants of health, including racisms, ageism, stigma and power relations.
- Critically evaluate legal, ethical and culturally safe practice issues facing the aged care professional, older persons, their carers and families within the health system.
Content
Course themes emphasised in this unit include ethical and responsible practice, and therapeutic relationships and communication.
This unit is organised into 8 modules:
- Module 1 – an introduction to law and ethics affecting the elderly from the perspectives of a range of stakeholders (for example: the aged care system, the aged care profession, community visitors, older persons, their carers, and families within the health system)
- Module 2 – abuse and neglect in the aged care context (for example: restrictive practices and responses to serious incidents of abuse and neglect, including relevant recommendations from reports of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety)
- Module 3 –an introduction to cultural safety, its history and key concepts grounded in the theories of power relations and social constructionism to reach a deep understanding of the culture concept and the interaction between personal, professional and health service cultures and peoples’ experience of aged care.
- Module 4 – a focus on the application of cultural safety’s principles to facilitate ongoing critical reflection for corporate and personal cultural awareness and social justice confronting all forms of discrimination in aged care through partnerships, power sharing, negotiation
- Module 5 – capacity and decision-making for personal and financial matters (including supported and substituted decision making)
- Module 6 – consent to medical treatment (including Advance Health Directives) and medical negligence
- Module 7 – elder abuse, including financial, physical, psychological and sexual abuse
- Module 8 – select issues in end of life law (for example: organ donation, tissue harvesting or transplantation, futility, palliative care, voluntary assisted dying, euthanasia)
Learning Approaches
In this fully online unit you will have the opportunity to learn through active engagement with the interactive learning resources, online discussions and self-directed learning materials. This unit takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining the complex legal, ethical and social issues affecting the elderly. The unit addresses these issues from the perspective of a range of stakeholders including: the aged care profession, older persons, their carers, and families within the health system. Learning activities assist students to respond to the complex needs of older people, including those at end of life, in lawful, ethical and culturally safe ways.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
- Informal formative feedback will be provided through self-check exercises, peer feedback and through individual or whole of class feedback in online discussions or via comments in online communities.
- Formal written or recorded feedback will be received on both formative and summative assessment tasks via the Canvas Assignment tool, in addition to the grade on the Criterion Referenced Assessment sheet.
- Feedback on your assessment task 1 will be received prior to the submission of your assessment task 2.
- Industry informed expert feedback may be provided through clinical assessment examples and interventions at timely intervals to guide learning and assessment.
- Students are encouraged to see and share feedback in their workplaces where appropriate.
Assessment
Overview
In this unit, there are two summative written assessment tasks to submit. The first assessment task requires you to write a critical reflection on self and on practice from the perspective of you as a private individual and as a health professional working in the care of the older person. The second assessment task requires you to write a research paper that critically evaluates a self-selected (and approved by the unit coordinator) legal and ethical issue facing the aged care profession, older persons, their carers and families within the health system.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Reflection and culturally safe practice
You will critically reflect on self and on practice from the perspective of you as a private individual and as a health professional working in the care of the older person. These entries will be in response to structured questions based on real events in clinical practice.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Aged care law and ethics critical essay
Students will write a critical essay on a topic approved by the online learning advisor.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Resources
Resource Materials
Recommended text(s)
Kelly Purser, Bridget Lewis, and Kirsty Mackie, The Human Rights of Older Persons: A human rights-based
approach to elder law (Springer, forthcoming 2020).
Cox, L., Taua, C., Drummond, A., and Kidd, J., Understanding and applying cultural safety: philosophy and practice of a social determinants approach.
J. Crisp, C. Taylor, C. Douglas & G. Rebeiro (Eds.) Fundamentals of nursing, 6e. Sydney: Elsevier (forthcoming 2020).
Risk Assessment Statement
This unit addresses sensitive and complex topics. If you are distressed by issues explored in the content of this unit you should approach academic staff or consult the university counselling service. Substantial computerbased work will be required. You are recommended to take regular rest breaks when engaging in prolonged computer-based work.