Medical Ethics and Legal Considerations

MA Professional Skills

This module provides knowledge on how to practice professional ethics as a medical assistant.

Ethical standards play an important role in the responsibilities of a medical assistant while performing patient care. As a vital member of the healthcare team, a medical assistant must understand and adhere to the ethics and principles set forth in medical assisting. This module provides knowledge in understanding the various ethical issues that a medical assistant may encounter in the workplace and how to apply them in the medical office.

You’ll learn

the code of ethics
patient rights
the various laws that affect a medical office
the difference between morals, ethics, and laws
much more (see Content Details for more specific information)

Introduction

Step 1 - Ethics

Step 1.1 - Code of ethics

Step 1.2 - Morals, ethics, and laws

Step 2 - Integrity

Step 3 - Confidentiality

Step 4 - Laws affecting the medical office

Step 4.1 - Scope-of-practice laws

Step 4.2 - Other federal healthcare laws

Step 4.3 - Employment laws

Step 4.4 - Health insurance requirements and regulations

Step 4.5 - Patient rights

Step 5 - Respect

Step 5.1 - Treating the whole person

Step 5.2 - Patient feeling of safety

Step 5.3 - Treating co-workers with dignity

Step 6 - Ethical decision-making

Step 6.1 - Beneficence

Step 6.2 - Non-maleficence

Step 6.3 - Autonomy

Step 6.4 - Justice

Step 7 - Values

Step 8 - Responsibility

Step 9 - Professional behavior

Determine actions that are within their scope of practice to actively participate in delivery of a quality healthcare experience.
Differentiate between legal, ethical, and moral issues affecting healthcare.
Recognize the impact personal morals have on the delivery of ethical healthcare.
Demonstrate keeping patient information private and confidential.
Honor dignity of patients and co-workers through treatment of the person as a whole.
Demonstrate acceptance of differences in patients and co-workers through just treatment of all.
Advocate for growth in professional skills by providing health and well-being services to the community.
Apply ethical principles to decision-making related to medical assisting actions.

The SIMTICS modules are all easy to use and web-based. This means they are available at any time as long as the learner has an internet connection. No special hardware or other equipment is required, other than a computer mouse for use in the simulations. Each of the SIMTICS modules covers one specific procedure or topic in detail. Each module contains:

an online simulation (available in Learn and Test modes)
descriptive text, which explains exactly how to perform that particular procedure including key terms and hyperlinks to references
2D images and a 3D model of applied anatomy for that particular topic
a step by step video demonstration by an expert
a quiz
a personal logbook that keeps track of all the modules the learner has studied and how long