Welcome to NURS 497 D or Nurs 458    

Ethical Challenges in Healthcare Informatics

    We would like to take this opportunity to Welcome you to this virtual course. NURS 497D or 458 is a challenging course that combines your informatics knowledge with ethics.  This case based collaboratory is designed for the exploration and analysis of the ethical dilemmas facing healthcare informatics practitioners.

Distance Learning Considerations

             To be successful in a virtual or Web-based course, you should be motivated, self-directed, and willing to work on your own. This type of course is not for everyone. If you are resourceful and comfortable with your computer and the Web, this type of instruction should work well for you. Good time management skills, self-discipline, and initiative are required to complete a course at a distance.

             Please refer to the following page for more information concerning virtual coursework.

Course Description

 This virtual course is designed to explore the technological impacts creating the ethical dilemmas facing healthcare practitioners today. A case-based collaboratory is the primary learning strategy designed to foster understanding and facilitate deliberation over ethical issues. The collaboratory consists of faculty from multiple campuses, ethicists and enrolled students interacting asynchronously to develop, and apply appropriate ethical frameworks for the challenging healthcare informatics cases. This approach empowers the student's ability to deliberate over ethical issues. The course is appropriate for physicians, nurses, healthcare administrators, healthcare information systems officers, healthcare information system developers, and anyone else with an interest in the ethical issues in healthcare informatics.

To take the course, however, you must have basic computer skills as well as the ability to use email and navigate the Web. The entire course is administered online. Assignments, communication, and interaction are all done online using the Web and email.

Web-based Tools

This course will be conducted entirely online using the web site established for the course (http://www.personal.psu.edu/dxm12/n458/index.htm) and CourseTalk (http://coursetalk.cac.psu.edu/), an interactive, asynchronous, on-line discussion area designed for use at Penn State.

Hardware and Software Requirements*

You are required to have access to a computer connected to the Internet and be familiar with email and Internet usage. (If you have trouble accessing the Internet from home, you can complete your course work from one of the computer labs available on campus.) For best results, please use Netscape or Internet Explorer browsers, version 4 or higher, when accessing the course materials.

You must have everything in place on the first day of class. This entire course will be conducted online. Good luck and we look forward to working with you in this course.

*If you are reading this, then you have the necessary hardware and software tools available to you to complete this course.

Click on Getting Started for help with beginning this course.

Professor's Contact Information

Dr. Kathleen Mastrian    kgm1@psu.edu

Dr. Dee McGonigle    dxm12@psu.edu