Postgraduate - UnitMPH5265 - Law for health systems

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
Offered	Alfred Hospital Second semester 2014 (Day) Alfred Hospital Second semester 2014 (Off-campus)
Coordinator(s)	Mrs E Kennedy

Synopsis

Review of legal management principles related to health care by examining common law principles and statutes. Examination of the Australian legal system, including the Coroner's court, with an emphasis on Victorian and Commonwealth cases and statutes. Focus on key areas of medical and health law such as negligence consent, privacy of health information, clinical research, abortion, euthanasia, mental health, infectious diseases, health complaints and law for health facilities such as hospitals.

Outcomes

At the end of this unit, students should be able to:

Demonstrate an understanding of the sources of law and of the legal systems of Victoria and the Commonwealth;
Describe the breadth of law impacting upon the delivery of health services;
Demonstrate an understanding of some key areas of medical law, such as negligence, informed consent, confidentiality, clinical research, abortion, euthanasia, health service law, mental health law, infectious diseases law, health complaints law and coronial law;
Demonstrate an understanding of other areas of law and legal policy as they apply to the health care system including trade practices, contract law, professional registration and malpractice, drugs and poisons law and therapeutic goods law;
Examine the current means of resolving consumer dissatisfaction and debate the merits of alternative methods;
Describe current risk management processes and their implementation;
Demonstrate basic skills in legal argument; and
Demonstrate basic skills in working in a team for the advancement of a legal argument.