M.A. Programs in Healthcare Ethics

Learning Outcomes

  • Students can understand, analyze and apply HCE theory and methods to major topics and issues in contemporary healthcare ethics.
  • Students can analyze critically the relationship of HCE with multidisciplinary fields in healthcare (empirical research, law, medicine, philosophy, religion, science and technology) as well as a global enterprise (using research from anthropology, sociology, political sciences and international human rights law).
  • Students can examine, analyze scholarly research and write scholarly essays and papers as a result of the research.
  • Students can integrate academic learning with experiential learning in clinical or organizational rotations as a function of service-learning and development as an HCE professional.
  • Students can function as an HCE expert and provide ethical leadership with knowledge, skills, competencies and character traits in diverse settings such as ethics committees, institutional review boards and ethics consultations.
  • Students can foster co-curricular practices for life-long learning to personally value and engage the clinical, organizational and professional components of HCE in a global context.

M.A. Degree (30 credits)

The M.A. degree program includes a total of ten courses (30 credits), twp required course plus eight courses selected from the general Healthcare Ethics courses. The required courses are general graduate-level introductions to normative healthcare ethics and empirical methods in healthcare ethics. The eight HCE courses will be chosen by the student with advisement according to the student's interest.

If students with an M.A. degree from the HCE program want to move to the PhD program, 6 more courses will be required, so that 16 courses (48 credits) have been completed before they apply for the comprehensive examination.

M.A. in Catholic Healthcare Ethics Degree (30 credits)

The M.A. degree program includes a total of ten courses (30 credits), two required course plus eight courses selected from the general Healthcare Ethics and Catholic Healthcare courses. The required courses are general graduate-level introductions to normative healthcare ethics and empirical methods in healthcare ethics. The eight HCE courses will be chosen by the student with advisement according to the student's interest. The Research Projects and the Research Essay in the courses will deal with topics related to Catholic health care.

If students with an M.A. degree from the HCE program want to move to the PhD program, 6 more courses will be required, so that 16 courses (48 credits) have been completed before they apply for the comprehensive examination.

M.A./JD Joint Degree

The Joint Degree program reduces the required credits for these two degrees from a minimum of 117 credits (87 credits for the J.D. and 30 credits for the M.A.) to a minimum of 95 credits through credit-sharing (advanced standing).

Advanced Standing

Students may earn advanced standing towards the M.A. for up to ten (10) J.D. credits, as follows:

Required courses (4 credits)

  • Health Care Law (2 credits)
  • Law and Medical Ethics (2 credits)

Elective credits (maximum of 6 credits)

Students may choose from the following J.D. courses:

  • Adjudication: The Judicial Process (2)
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution (2)
  • Animal Law (2)
  • Art of Mediation (2)
  • Children and the Law (3)
  • Drug Regulation: Current Issues (2)
  • Gender & the Law (2)
  • Governance, Compliance, and Risk Management (3)
  • Health Care Fraud and Abuse (2)
  • Healthcare Care Organization and Finance (2)
  • Legal Medicine & Forensic Science (2)
  • Philosophy of Law (3)
  • Public Health Law & Policy (2)

Students may earn advanced standing towards the J.D. for up to twelve (12) M.A. credits; however, the courses taken in the M.A. program that are too similar to courses taught in the School of Law will not be accepted as shared credits for advanced standing. Pursuant to ABA Standard 311, Interpretation 311-1(b)(2), all advanced standing credits awarded toward the J.D. degree shall count as non-classroom credits.

The M.A. courses available for advanced standing are:

Elective credits (maximum of 12 credits)

Students may choose from the following M.A. courses:

  • HCE 648 Clinical ethics (3)
  • HCE 645 Comparative religious bioethics (3)
  • HCE 643 End of Life Care Ethics (3)
  • HCE 653 Genetics and ethics (3)
  • HCE 662 Organizational ethics in health care (3)
  • HCE 654 Research ethics (3)
  • HCE 655 Global bioethics (3)
  • HCE 659 Normative Methods in Healthcare Ethics
  • HCE-658, Intensive Research
  • HCE-660, Research Writing in HCE

For the M.A. in Healthcare Ethics, twenty (20) additional M.A. credits will be required (in addition to the ten (10) J.D. advance standing credits from the list of courses above):

Required courses (5 credits)

  • HCE-659 Methods in Healthcare Ethics (3)
  • HCE-646 Core (2)
  • Five courses from the list of electives above (15 credits, 12 of which will count as advance standing credits toward the J.D.)
For the J.D., a total of 87 credits is required, which includes in addition to the 12 advance standing credits, 49 - 50 required credits and 25 - 26 J.D. credits earned in elective courses. See Curricular Details, below.

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Students must apply and be accepted to both programs of study. Each school shall independently determine admission to its program. Law students may not matriculate into the MBA/JD Joint Degree program without the advance approval of the academic Status Committee.

A competitive LSAT score is required for admission to the Law and will not be waived based on an applicant's GRE score. A competitive LSAT may be used in lieu of the GRE for admissions to the M.A. in Healthcare Ethics.

Admission to one school shall not guarantee entry to the other school.

Details about applying to the M.A. in Healthcare Ethics program are available at www.duq.edu/academics/schools/liberal-arts/about-us/centers/center-for-healthcare-ethics/degrees-and-programs/application-process.

Details about applying to the J.D. program are available at http://law.duq.edu/admissions.

Prospective law students may apply to matriculate simultaneously into the J.D. and J.D./M.A. in Healthcare Ethics Joint Degree program. Law students who wish to matriculate into the J.D./M.A. in Healthcare Ethics Joint Degree program after beginning their legal studies must petition the Academic Status Committee.

Students may begin their study in either the Center for Healthcare or in the School of Law; however, in accordance with ABA Standard 311(d), students shall only be given credit toward their J.D. degree for course work taken after matriculation into the School of Law.

Students currently enrolled in the M.A. in Healthcare Ethics may apply to the J.D./M.A. Joint Degree Program provided that they have not substantially completed the requirements for the M.A in Healthcare Ethics. Substantial completion shall be determined by the Academic Status Committee of the Law School on a case-by-case basis.

Students may not take M.A. and J.D. courses simultaneously until after all first year law courses have been completed. For part-time day and evening law students, this means that M.A. courses may be taken during the summer between the first and second years of law school but not during the fall and spring semesters of either year. Further, a J.D. student who is not in good standing may not take M.A. and J.D. courses simultaneously.

Full-time law students in this program must enroll in a minimum of ten (10) J.D. credits per semester and may not exceed a maximum of eighteen (18) credits, J.D. and M.A. combined, per semester. Part-time day and evening law students must enroll in a minimum of eight (8) J.D. credits per semester and may not exceed a maximum of thirteen (13) credits, J.D. and M.A. combined, per semester.

In addition to the requirements of the J.D./M.A. Joint Degree program, students must successfully complete the additional graduation requirements of each program of study in order to be awarded its degree.

Students who successfully complete all requirements of both programs of study will receive two degrees. The degrees do not need to be conferred simultaneously.

Courses from one program that are counted toward the other program will be applied to the student's transcript as advanced standing credits.

CURRICULA DETAILS

J.D. CREDITS                                                                  M.A. CREDITS
J.D. Required Courses 49-50                                           M.A. Required Courses 5
Advanced Standing Credits-Required 0                           Advanced Standing Credits-Required 4
Advanced Standing Credits-Electives 12                         Advanced Standing Credits-Electives 6
J.D. Electives 25-26                                                          M.A. Electives 15
   Total Credits 87                                                                 Total Credits 30

Ph.D. Programs in Healthcare Ethics

Learning Outcomes

  • Students can understand, analyze and apply HCE theory and methods to major topics and issues in contemporary healthcare ethics.
  • Students can analyze critically the relationship of HCE with multidisciplinary fields in healthcare (empirical research, law, medicine, philosophy, religion, science and technology) as well as a global enterprise (using research from anthropology, sociology, political sciences and international human rights law).
  • Students can perform independent scholarly research, write scholarly essays and present academic papers that meet the standards of scholarly research in HCE.
  • Students can integrate academic learning with experiential learning in clinical or organizational rotations as a function of service-learning and development as an HCE professional.
  • Students can function as an HCE expert and provide ethical leadership with knowledge, skills, competencies and character traits in a diverse settings such as ethics committees, institutional review boards and ethics consultations.
  • Students can foster co-curricular practices for life-long learning to personally value and engage the clinical, organizational and professional components of HCE in a global context.

Ph.D. and Dr. Degree (42 credits)

The Doctoral Curriculum requires 12 courses (36 credits) beyond the Master's degree from another institution or program. After Comprehensive Exams, both Doctoral Degree Programs require six credits of dissertation hours.

Students in HCE MA Degree track who continue on in the Doctoral Degree programs must complete 6 additional courses after their 10 MA courses, so that 16 courses (48 credits) have been completed before they apply for the comprehensive examination.

Baccalaureate Admission track requires sixteen courses (48 credits) beyond the Baccalaureate Degree.

The Ethics Rotation Program is titled, Clinical and Organizational Rotations in Ethics (CORE). The Program provides HCE students with an experience-based curriculum to learn in a supervised, step-by-step manner the scholarly knowledge and professionals skills for providing ethics services in health care. The curriculum focuses upon integrating clinical, organizational, and professional ethics across the health care organization. The program also seeks to provide a Mentored Apprenticeship to train students to undertake clinical ethics consultations, including the pre-consultation phase.

The junior rotations (HCE 646, 647) are intensely supervised and occur at UPMC Mercy Hospital which is adjacent to Duquesne University. The senior rotation internships (HCE 681, 682), in which students function as an ethicist-in-residence, occur at UPMC Mercy Hospital or at another health care institution. HCE has multiple partnerships with local, regional, and national health care providers to facilitate these internships. Internship duties include professional ethics education for facility personnel, ethics research, policy review or development on ethical issues, and prospective and retrospective case consultation. Each three-credits Internship requires approximately 150 hours of work within the assigned facility.

Typically, ethics rotations and internships may be initiated after completion of 18 credit hours of course work. The CORE Program adopts an Integrated Ethics approach, as developed by the Veterans Health Administration, to implement the Core Competencies for Clinical Ethics Consultation (recently revised by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities). A detailed outline of the CORE Program is available in the HCE Handbook of Policies and Guidelines.

Doctoral Course Planner

The Doctoral Degree Program adopts the following Course Planner to enable students to track their coursework. All courses are 3-credit hours. All course selections must be approved by the student's academic advisor. The only mandatory course is HCE 659 Methods in HCE. Students choose their remaining courses from the following:

  • HCE-643, End of Life Care Ethics
  • HCE-645, Comparative Religious Bioethics
  • HCE-648, Clinical Ethics
  • HCE-653, Genetics & Ethics
  • HCE-654, Research Ethics
  • HCE-655, Global Bioethics
  • HCE-658, Intensive Research
  • HCE-659, Methods in HCE
  • HCE-660, Research Writing in HCE
  • HCE-662, Organizational HCE
  • HCE-690, Independent Study
  • HCE-659, Normative Methods in Healthcare Ethics

FOUR CLINICAL ROTATIONS

  •  Clinical Rotation, HCE-646, CORE 1
  • Jr. Rotation, HCE-647, CORE 2
  • Sr. Internship, HCE-681, CORE 3
  • Sr. Internship, HCE-682, CORE 4

Doctoral Course Planner for
Catholic Healthcare Ethics

The Doctoral Degree Program adopts the following Course Planner to enable students to track their coursework. All courses are 3-credit hours. All course selections must be approved by the student's academic advisor. The only mandatory course is HCE 759 Methods in HCE. Students choose their remaining courses from the following:

  • HCE-743, End of Life Care Ethics
  • HCE-745, Comparative Religious Bioethics
  • HCE-748, Clinical Ethics
  • HCE-753, Genetics & Ethics
  • HCE-754, Research Ethics
  • HCE-755, Global Bioethics
  • HCE-758, Intensive Research
  • HCE-759, Methods in HCE
  • HCE-760, Research Writing in HCE
  • HCE-762, Organizational HCE
  • HCE-790, Independent Study
  • HCE-759, Normative Methods in Healthcare Ethics

FOUR CLINICAL ROTATIONS

  • Clinical Rotation, HCE-746, CORE 1
  • Jr. Rotation, HCE-747, CORE 2
  • Sr. Internship, HCE-781, CORE 3
  • Sr. Internship, HCE-782, CORE 4

Comprehensive Examination

Written comprehensive examinations occur after a student completes doctoral degree course work requirements. There are two full-time HCE faculty examiners. A detailed outline of the Comprehensive Examination process is available in the HCE Handbook of Policies and Guidelines.

Dissertation (Ph.D.) or Project (DHCE)

The PhD degree is a research degree that combines academic and clinical education to train students in a systematic and critical manner to be scholars in the field. Hence, the PhD dissertation focuses upon appropriate research and writing competencies to be successful scholars in the field.

The DHCE degree is a professional degree that combines academic and clinical education to train students in a systematic and critical manner to be clinically oriented professionals in the field. Hence, the DHCE project is a practical endeavor that focuses upon the appropriate clinical and writing competencies to be successful professionals in the field.

A Faculty Committee (Director and Readers) is assigned to supervise the student in the phase of doctoral writing. After the Committee ascertains that the dissertation or project has been completed satisfactorily, there is an oral Doctoral Defense with the following possible outcomes: formal approval or the requirement to resubmit the text based on critiques at the defense.

Upon successfully completing the above the student proceeds to Graduation, following the requirements of the University for submitting the doctoral text and planning for graduation.

A detailed outline of the process for doctoral writing, the doctoral defense, and graduation is available in the HCE Handbook of Policies and Guidelines.

Ph.D. in Nursing Ethics Joint Degree

The School of Nursing and the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Center for Health Care Ethics offer an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Nursing Ethics. This one-of-a-kind Ph.D. program in Nursing Ethics combines doctoral courses in Nursing and Healthcare Ethics. This online program may be completed in four years, with select residency requirements, including a study abroad component.

Course credits:

26 credits - Nursing
12 credits - Health Care Ethics
3 credits - Cognate
6 credits - Dissertation
47 Total Credits

Residency Requirements

Residency 1: Doctoral Week (Summer of year 1)
Every student admitted to the PhD program is required to come to campus for the first residency, usually held during the third week of May. This week includes an orientation to the PhD program and provides an opportunity for students to meet faculty and participate in live classes for the courses in which they are enrolled that summer.

Residency 2: Study Abroad (Summer of year 2)
Students enrolled in GPNG 924 Methods of Scientific Inquiry II will take part of the course as a study abroad experience (approx. 10-14 days) in locations such as Dublin, Ireland where students will have housing at the Duquesne University Ireland campus.

Residency 3: Dissertation Final Defense (Year 4)
Students are required to come to campus for the final public defense of their dissertation.