Healthcare Ethics

Duquesne’s Center for Global Heath Ethics provides a number of unique scholarly and professional training programs in healthcare ethics, among them four doctoral programs. 
 
These programs—Ph.D. and DHCE programs in healthcare ethics and Catholic healthcare ethics—are designed to prepare you for a future in academia, healthcare or a variety of intersecting professions. You will focus on pivotal issues in healthcare ethics and learn to understand these topics within the context of healthcare as a phenomenon that connects people and the environment. 
 
Through these programs, we cultivate academic excellence, ethically responsible judgment and social justice in a global context. In addition to the more traditional focus in healthcare ethics, as a student in either of these doctoral programs you will focus on global health ethics, engage with experiences in other cultures and religions and consider the connections between health, the environment, society and the economy. 
 
These programs will set you apart intellectually and professionally, preparing you to advance global discourse on healthcare ethics and advance your career. Whether you go on to serve in a clinical ethics setting, work for an NGO or governmental body or join teaching or research programs, you will be positioned to have a meaningful impact on a global scale. 
 
We offer a flexible curriculum and can accommodate distance students. The training you receive will prepare you for a career in academia, healthcare or an array of interconnected fields. 

 

Program Information

These doctoral programs offer the opportunity to explore healthcare ethics in a global context that will align your skillset with what is needed in healthcare organizations and beyond.

Degree

Doctorate

School

McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts

Program Requirements

The doctoral degree programs adopt the following course planner to enable you to track your coursework. All courses are 3 credit hours, and all course selections must be approved by your academic advisor. The only mandatory courses are HCE 649- Empirical Methods in Healthcare Ethics and HCE 659-Normative Methods in HCE. You may choose your remaining courses from the following:

The doctoral curriculum requires 12 courses (36 credits) beyond the master’s degree. After comprehensive exams, our doctoral degree programs require 6 credits of dissertation hours.

  • HCE-643 End of Life Care Ethics
  • HCE-645 Comparative Religious Bioethics
  • HCE-648 Clinical Ethics
  • HCE 649 Empirical Methods in HCE
  • HCE 650 Beginning of Life Ethics
  • HCE-653 Genetics & Ethics
  • HCE-654 Research Ethics
  • HCE-655 Global Bioethics
  • HCE-658 Intensive Research in Healthcare Ethics
  • HCE-659 Normative Methods in HCE
  • HCE-660 Research Writing in HCE
  • HCE-662 Organizational HCE
  • HCE-690 Independent Study
The Ethics Rotation Program is titled Clinical and Organizational Rotations in Ethics (CORE) and involves these four rotations:
  • HCE-646 Junior Clinical Rotation I
  • HCE-647 Junior Clinical Rotation II
  • HCE-681 Senior Clinical Internship I
  • HCE-682 Senior Clinical Internship II

The program provides you 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 healthcare. 

The curriculum focuses on integrating clinical, organizational and professional ethics across the healthcare organization. The program also seeks to provide you with a mentored apprenticeship 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 healthcare 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 3-credit 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 coursework. 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). 

Written comprehensive examinations occur after you complete your doctoral degree coursework requirements. There are two full-time HCE faculty examiners. A detailed outline of the comprehensive exam process is available in the HCE Handbook of Policies and Guidelines.

The Ph.D. 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 Ph.D. dissertation focuses on 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 you in the phase of doctoral writing. After the committee ascertains that your 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, you will proceed to graduation, following the requirements of the university for submitting the doctoral text and planning for graduation.

“The Ph.D. program allows me to learn the theoretical side of healthcare ethics and see how it is applied in the real world. The clinical rotations are an invaluable experience. They allow me to interact with and learn from medical professionals and clinical ethicists. The value of combining the theoretical side of ethics with practical experience in clinical rotations is tremendous.”

Ian Doherty, Ph.D. student in healthcare ethics

Application Requirements

Submit the university application through the graduate application portal including a resume or curriculum vitae. 

 

If you are in the process of completing a degree, you may have your college or university submit an up-to-date official transcript with your application to Duquesne University via email or by mail to:

Duquesne University
McAnulty Graduate School of Liberal Arts
600 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15282

If your undergraduate and/or graduate degrees are from an institution located outside of the United States, you must use a transcript credential evaluation service to obtain a course-by-course report. The official reports must be sent directly to Duquesne University from the organization you order through and will qualify as official transcripts.

At least three confidential letters of recommendation must be submitted by those in a position to assess the applicant's past performance and future academic potential. Please use the graduate application portal to generate online requests for confidential letters of recommendation. Recommenders will receive instructions by email for uploading their letters directly to the Duquesne system.
Describe in a few paragraphs why you are a good candidate for the program to which you are applying.
For the writing sample, the admission committee expects a text, written by the applicant, that shows that he or she is able to develop and present a coherent academic argument with good literature integration. Manuscripts written by more than one author are not acceptable. There is no page requirement for the writing sample, but a good sample will normally be at least five pages in order to give the admission committee the opportunity to assess the applicant's research and writing skills. The writing sample need not be new. Ideally, the writing sample is in the area of healthcare ethics or bioethics, but that is not necessary.
This applies only to international students. Scores should be sent electronically through the application portal.

An ethical contribution

In her dissertation, “The Ethical Contribution of Cultural Diversity as a Social Determinant of Health,” Pooja Patel examines how cultural diversity, as a social determinant of health, provides an ethical contribution when aligned with human life, dignity, rights and equity. She found that in the current and near future, the ethical contribution of cultural diversity as a social determinant of health will be vital to sustaining the flourishing of current and future generations.

FAQ's

About the PhD in Healthcare Ethics

No, we do not require the GRE.
Students typically take 4 years to complete this degree, depending on their credentials.
The entire program may be completed from a distance. While we do encourage students to be present for the program, we understand this is not always an option. Therefore, we both record and livestream all of our lectures and major events to be viewed online. We use Zoom for students who cannot attend classes in person. In this way, they can participate in class from a distance. Students who unable to participate in class either in person or from a distance, can watch the class recording at a time that is convenient to them.
Yes. Funding is available for PhD/DHCE students only. Unfortunately, funding is not available for distance learners or masters students, though you may be eligible for other financial aid. Funding is available as merit-based scholarship or graduate assistantship. This funding requires students to be present at the Center for Healthcare Ethics several hours per week. Funding is competitive, but does not require a separate application. Any student interested in applying for funding should apply by March 25th for consideration.
Unfortunately, the Center only offers Fall entry into the MA, PhD and DHCE programs. The deadline for applying to these programs is August 1st of each year. Doctoral applicants wishing to be considered for funding should apply by March 25th.
For the writing sample, the admission committee expects a text, written by the applicant, that shows that he or she is able to develop and present a coherent academic argument with good literature integration. Manuscripts written by more than one author are not acceptable. There is no page requirement for the writing sample, but a good sample will normally be at least five pages in order to give the admission committee the opportunity to assess the applicant's research and writing skills. The writing sample need not be new. Ideally, the writing sample is in the area of healthcare ethics or bioethics, but that is not necessary.
The personal statement is primarily intended to tell the admissions committee why you want to attend graduate school and what you intend to gain from the program. The personal statement will differ for every individual and should reflect who you are as a person and scholar. It does not need to be a formal research proposal, but should generally outline your interests and motivation for studying healthcare ethics. What is it about healthcare ethics that makes you want to pursue a degree and career in it?