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Organised in collaboration with the José Ortega y Gasset & Gregorio Marañón Foundation (FOM) and the Ortega y Gasset University Research Institute (IUIOG).
3rd Edition. October 2023 - June 2025 (two academic years).
The Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP) and the José Ortega y Gasset & Gregorio Marañón Foundation (FOM) and the Ortega y Gasset University Research Institute (IUIOG) have formed an academic partnership and established an official Master’s Programme in Clinical Bioethics.
The master’s degree intends to offer students the chance to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes enabling them to find effective solutions to ethical conflicts in medicine. The aims of the programme are:
Main Aim:
Supplementary Aims:
The programme is in line with the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the teaching load is set in ECTS credits—the standard adopted by all EHEA universities to ensure standardisation and quality on university programmes.
Regular Pre-Enrolment Period: march 03 to june 8, 2023 (until 12:00 Madrid time)
Enquiries regarding the pre-enrolment process should be addressed to: preinscripcion.posgrado@uimp.es
Regular Enrolment Period: From June 27, 2023, within 10 calendar days of receipt of the notification of admission.
Submission of documentation: from the time of enrolment until the first two weeks of the course.
Enquiries regarding the enrolment process should be addressed to: alumnos.posgrado@uimp.es
Additional information can be found at this link
Benjamín Herreros
Internal Medicine Specialist, Hospital Universitario Fundación Alcorcón
Associate Lecturer, Departament of Legal Medicine (UCM)
Contact-e-mail: infocursos@fogm.es
Spanish
The Master’s Academic Commission will decide on candidate admissions based on the specific admission conditions and requirements for the programme, with a view to not exceeding the available set 30 places to be offered for the online programme.
The master’s programme will be taught on the Virtual Campus of the José Ortega y Gasset & Gregorio Marañón Foundation.
Informatión: Fundación José Ortega y Gasset y Gregorio Marañón
C/ Fortuny, 53. 28010 Madrid. Tel.: (34) 91 700 41 00
The master’s programme comprises 60 ECTS credits taught part-time over two academic years (30 credits per year) and split between 42 mandatory credits, 4 elective credits and 14 credits for the master’s thesis.
The degree is taught in two formats—online or blended—and the difference between them resides in two subjects:
The subject schedule for the online degree is set out below:
Subject 102634 - Introduction to Clinical Ethics (3 ECTS)
Subject 102635 - Work Methodology and Decision-Making in Clinical Ethics (3 ECTS)
Subject 102636 - The Clinical Relationship (3 ECTS)
Subject 102637 - Ethics and Professionalism (3 ECTS)
Subject 102638 - Ethical Advice and Consultation Models. Ethics Committees for Healthcare (6 ECTS)
Subject 120639 - Consulting and Mediation in Clinical Ethics (5 ECTS)
Subject 102642 - Research Ethics and Integrity (3 ECTS)
Subject 102643 - Empirical Bioethics (4 ECTS)
Subjet 102644 -Information and Communication (3 ECTS)
Subjet 102645 - Patients at the End of Life. Ethical Problems with Patients at the End of Life (5 ECTS)
Subjet 102646 - Ethical Conflicts in Special Contexts (5 ECTS)
Subject 102647 - External Placements (4 ECTS)
Subjet 102649 - Master’s Thesis (14 ECTS)
AF1 - Clinical Scenarios. The teaching method will focus on constructing scenarios that represent conflictive case studies. The scenarios will be supported by concept frameworks that enable students to analyse the case study in two facets: problem analysis and possible solutions. In this way, learning will focus on the problem and the necessary skills to resolve it. This approach enables teaching staff to assess skill acquisition through specific tools designed on the basis of conceptual frameworks that support students in theory classes, in a way that the scenarios are integrated into frameworks that help students develop their skills.
AF2 - Discussion Forums. Each subject will have a matching discussion forum where students may work on and discuss the topics suggested by lecturers.
AF3 - External Placements (blended programme). Subject area V will provide students with the chance to undertake external placements at health centres and ethical consulting services (ethics committees, clinical consultants, ethical conduct committees, etc.) so that they may experience the professional reality of clinical ethics and digest the skills developed on the master’s programme.
AF5 – Tutorials. Students will have personal tutorials with lecturers to clear up any doubts that may arise.
AF6 - Self-managed Work. Students must undertake independent study for each subject throughout the master’s programme. This work will comprise reading and analysing guides, and the related supplementary bibliography, as well as undertaking tasks proposed to students throughout the programme. The lecturers for each subject will clear up any doubts that students may come across with regard to the subjects during their self-managed work.
AF7 - Writing and Defending the Master’s Thesis. The programme will conclude with
The teaching model focuses on presenting case studies and frameworks that are specifically designed to help students’ understanding. Learning outlines the problems and the required skills to solve them.
The approach enables lecturers to assess skill acquisition on the master’s programme through a set of tools designed for this very purpose.
For training activity AF1 - Clinical Scenarios, the scenarios will be worked on as per the following teaching methodologies:
S1 - Participation in subject debate forums: active participation and the contributions made will be assessed.
S2 - Clinical scenarios: clinical case studies and scenarios will be available on the Virtual Campus, in addition to specific guidelines for the work that students must do with the case study.
S3 - Self-assessment test: a test with four options on content studied in the subject.
S4 - Self-reflection exercises: a self-reflection exercise during the subject regarding a topic suggested by the lecturer.
S5 - Tasks: a literature review on a topic proposed by the lecturer.
S6 - External placement assessment (blended model): the academic tutor is responsible for external placement assessment. Tutors shall take into account the marks they have awarded students’ work (30%), the mark awarded in the final report submitted by professional tutors (30%) and the mark awarded to the final external placement report written by students (40%).
S8 - Master’s thesis report assessment: the panel shall have at least 15 days to read and assess the master’s thesis submitted by students. It shall award a mark that is worth 30-50% of the final thesis grade.
S9 - Report and mark by the thesis supervisor: the thesis supervisor shall submit a report to the programme management team regarding the suitability of the thesis for viva examination. The report shall include a mark worth 10-30% of the final thesis grade.
S10 - Presentation and defence of the thesis: students shall have an attended thesis viva (in-person or online to ensure synchronisation between the student and panel) in public, comprising an oral presentation of the thesis content or its main areas. Students will then answer any questions and resolve any clarifications put forward by the panel. Finally, the panel shall award a mark for the presentation and defence of the work, worth 40-60% of the final thesis grade.
Clinical bioethics is a widely developing field both nationally and internationally, thanks to the huge amount of ethical problems that arise in medicine and research into human beings. This has led to the creation of Ethics Committees for Healthcare around the world, with the appearance of positions such as Bioethics Consultant and Bioethics Mediator. In turn, bioethics has become a mandatory subject on degrees in health sciences and other areas, such as philosophy or psychology. It is therefore necessary to have trained professionals in clinical bioethics to work on ethics committees or as consultants, as well as lecturers in bioethics.
There is a lack of trained professionals in clinical bioethics in Spain and, especially, in Latin America, to sit on ethics committees, work as bioethics consultants or lecture in bioethics. Not to mention, it is essential for all health professionals to develop specific skills to deal with rising conflicts in medicine. Bioethics skills are currently core elements on all teaching programmes in health sciences.
Having trained professionals in bioethics would improve ethical decision-making at health centres, leading to a positive impact on healthcare and, therefore, on the support provided by professionals at health centres, whether in primary care or in specialised fields. This would also have a highly positive impact for the public and society, since one of the priorities in the West is to have quality healthcare where decisions are in line with the best standards of scientific and ethical quality.
The future of medicine and clinical bioethics ensures this field will require ever more trained professionals to take reasoned ethical decisions and participate on committees, work as consultants and teach bioethics.
The Master’s in Clinical Bioethics is taught online and as a blended course, in line with the proven demand of two student cohorts:
Since potential students on this type of programme will be unable to take it full time (in general, working professionals), the programme will be taught over two years in both the blended and online formats.
CG1 - Seamlessly integrate contributions from medicine, law, philosophy, biology and psychology into clinical bioethics.
CG2 - Analyse documents from the field of clinical bioethics, independently categorising and separating data for later use in ethical problems.
CG3 - Acquire the skill to identify ethical conflicts within clinical practice, discerning between different available solutions.
CG4 - Integrate bioethical knowledge and perform ethical insights to formulate opinions and take decisions that consider the possible associated social and ethical responsibilities.
CG5 - Clearly and coherently communicate decisions in clinical ethics and their resulting conclusions to specialised and general audiences, taking into account arguments on both sides.
CG6 - The ability to work in interdisciplinary teams and jointly consider ethical conflicts.
CG7 - Include intercultural dialogue and differing world views on ethics in bioethical debates.
CE1 - Understand the historical and philosophical roots of bioethics (anthropology and ethics), distinguishing between different currents and implications in the discussions around clinical ethics.
CE2 - Understand legal and ethical regulations on biomedicine both in Spain and internationally, contrasting and reasoning the ethical implications and their social repercussions.
CE3 - Discover the nature, regulation, functions and fields of application for ethics committees (healthcare and research), and bioethical consulting and mediation.
CE4 - Apply deliberation and decision procedures to consulting on bioethical conflicts in the sphere of ethics committees and bioethical consulting.
CE5 - Internalise the main elements of the health relationship, particularly the healthcare professional-patient relationship, and its inherent ethical aspects.
CE6 - Discover and distinguish between different clinical practice scenarios that may involve ethical conflicts, and have specific tools in each area to resolve them.
CE7 - Perform bioethical assessment in treating and caring for vulnerable populations, including care for disabilities and minorities, and the ethical problems faced in the final stage of life.
CE8 - Identify conflicts between values that arise in scenarios where new biomedical technologies are used and with regard to the allocation of health resources.
CE9 - Analyse the ethical aspects of a clinical or biomedical research project, detecting any ethical problems that may arise.
CE10 - Undertake a research project into clinical bioethics, using the theoretical knowledge acquired and research methodologies in bioethics.
The Master’s Programme in Clinical Bioethics is particularly targeted at graduates in the following fields: health sciences (medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, dentistry, occupational therapy, pharmacy, psychology, human nutrition and dietetics, optics and optometry, podiatry and speech therapy); life sciences (biotechnology, biology); and the humanities, and social and legal sciences (law, social work, sociology, anthropology, political science, social education) who are working or may work in the field of clinical bioethics—ethics committees, consulting or teaching.
The wide entry profile is justified by the multidisciplinary nature of the programme as graduates in health, law and the humanities participate in bioethics. All these degree programmes look at problems and consult on decision-making. The programme will offer all graduates the tools to be able to advise on bioethical conflicts.
All students from life sciences, the humanities, and social and legal sciences must take the supplementary training module ‘Introduction to Clinical Experience’ (3 credits) before the start of the programme’s second year.
The multidisciplinary nature of the content and cross-cutting teaching methods make the Master’s Degree in Clinical Bioethics an excellent choice for professionals from any undergraduate programme linked to clinical practice, ethics, health, law and ethics, including: medicine, nursing, psychology, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, social work, law, philosophy, anthropology and sociology.
The programme is designed for professionals in the early stages of their career, as well as experienced professionals who wish to improve their knowledge about the main ethical issues in healthcare. It also appeals to experts in clinical ethics who are seeking to broaden their training.
In turn, and in addition to improving the training of clinical bioethics professionals, the programme opens up the door to undertaking R&D&i research and projects in medicine, since there are ever more research and innovation projects in the field of bioethics funded by public and private institutions.
Admission with an official degree from Spain or the European Higher Education Area (EHEA): admission to the Master’s Programme in Clinical Bioethics requires applicants to hold an official university degree from Spain or from a higher education institution in another EHEA state that enables them, in the issuing country of the qualification, to be admitted to university master’s programmes.
Admission with a non-EHEA university degree: candidates from non-EHEA education systems may be admitted without having to validate their qualifications, providing they accredit a training level equivalent to official Spanish university qualifications that allow them to be admitted to postgraduate training in the issuing country of their qualification.
Admission of these students requires a favourable resolution issued by the Vice Chancellor. The Vice Chancellor’s decision shall in no way imply validation of the previous qualification held by the candidate, nor its accreditation for other purposes except for taking the master’s programme.
Applications for admission must be done through the ‘online pre-registration’ form on the UIMP website: http://www.uimp.es/preins/index.php. When formalising their pre-registration, applicants must attach PDF scans of the required documentation. These documents do not need to be officially authenticated for pre-registration. Nonetheless, it would be advisable to have them authenticated as this will be required to formalise enrolment in the event that candidates are admitted to the programme.
1. A photocopy of applicants’ DNI (for Spanish citizens) or passport or NIE ID (for non-Spanish citizens).
2. A photocopy of their degree certificate that qualifies them for admission to master’s studies, or a receipt of having paid the issuance fees for their degree certificate.
3. Personal academic certificate.
4. A passport-sized photo in JPG format; the file name must be the surname(s) and name of the student without any spaces.
5. Curriculum vitae (four pages max.) in PDF format to enable other merits in line with the admission profile to be assessed. The CV must indicate, where applicable, whether the candidate belongs to ethics committees for healthcare, research ethics committees or ethical conduct committees.
6. Personal motivation letter for undertaking the programme. Students who have a foreign degree that has not been validated or is currently being validated shall also provide the following:
7. A certificate from the university where they studied for their degree that states that the qualification provides admission to postgraduate studies in the issuing country.
8. A personal academic certificate that states the official length in academic years of their degree, the syllabus followed, the subjects taken, the marks awarded and the class load for each subject.
N.B.: Students who have a foreign degree that has not been validated or is currently being validated shall submit the documents duly authenticated and accompanied by a Spanish translation, where applicable.
Original documentation must ONLY be submitted at the Student Secretary’s Office (C/ Isaac Peral 23. 28040 Madrid, Spain) in the event that the application for admission is approved by the Master’s Academic Commission.
Universal access shall be ensured and students with disabilities shall have the necessary resources and support to be able to properly undertake the master’s programme. For this purpose, they shall be asked to indicate their specific needs during pre-registration.
The UIMP Protocol for supporting students with specific educational needs due to disability may be viewed at this link. Protocolo UIMP para la atención de estudiantes con necesidades educativas específicas derivadas de discapacidad.
The selection process for admission to the Master’s Programme in Clinical Bioethics for both the blended and online options comprises the following stages:
1) Receipt of candidate applications.
2) Assessment of the merits submitted by candidates (up to a maximum of 30 points):
Where several candidates are tied after selection assessment, a personal interview shall be conducted by the programme’s management team. The aim is to identify candidates’ attitudes and get to know their expectations in-depth. The interview is scored from 0 to 10 points and considers the following aspects:
1) Motivation for the programme (4 points)
2) Professional expectations (3 points)
3) Knowledge in bioethics (3 points).
Once enrolled, master’s students will have continuous support and guidance from the master’s programme management team (coordinator and admin staff) over the virtual campus and via e-mail. Personalised monitoring shall be ensured.
Once enrolled, master’s students will have continuous support and guidance from the master’s programme management team (coordinator and admin staff) over the virtual campus and via e-mail. Personalised monitoring shall be ensured. Both the master’s programme and subject course guides will be published on the UIMP and FOM websites. Students will be able to consult them and make themselves familiar with the programme’s content. At the start of the course, during the first few days of the programme and before teaching begins, students will have access to a user manual for the virtual campus. Thanks to a video tutorial and different simple exercises, they will start to work with the tools on the virtual campus. The exercises are also useful for students to get to know one another despite the physical distance in online learning. There is also a video about the work methodology to be used on the programme, submission deadlines, a preview of the master’s thesis and other useful aspects on how the programme operates.
The following posts and duties are in place to ensure teaching advice for students:
The student teaching-learning process will be undertaken over the master’s web platform, where different teaching methods will be used (videos, clinical case studies, online materials, etc.), generally aimed at practical learning based on cases and problems.
All teaching materials will be available on the platform (guides, video classes, articles, presentations, etc.) and the necessary teaching and guidance for students will be offered over different forums.
Teaching support for students will be provided on an ongoing basis through the programme director, coordinator and subject coordinators. Admin support will be provided by the UIMP and FOM Secretary’s Office. In addition to online support, where students so require, attended meetings shall be organised to resolve any queries or problems that may arise throughout the master’s programme.
In the blended format, students must attend two face-to-face weeks per academic year (specified in the syllabus).
Once teaching has started, learning will be based on the following material and information added to the online platform for each subject.
Each student will have a supervisor to monitor the thesis.
Before the first year ends, a meeting will be held with the thesis supervisor (either online or in-person) to set out the topic, research question, approaches and bibliography.
The master’s thesis viva examination will be done with live attendance (either in-person or over the virtual campus) to ensure synchronisation (as well as the student’s identity) between students and the panel.
Benjamín Herreros
Internal Medicine Specialist, Hospital Universitario Fundación Alcorcón
Associate Lecturer, Departament of Legal Medicine (UCM)
José Miguel Hernández
Researcher, Francisco Vallés Institute of Clínical Ethics, Madrid
Associate Lecturer in Bioethics, University of Nebrija
Correo electrónico de contacto: infocursos@fogm.es
The Master’s Degree in Clinical Bioethics has a teaching staff from different disciplines: medicine, nursing and other health areas, as well as philosophy, health law, communication and clinical psychology. They all possess solid training, teaching and professional experience in the field of clinical bioethics, and are leading figures in the area of knowledge they teach.
Each subject has a coordinator who will be responsible for ensuring that it runs properly.
Benjamín Herreros, Internal Medicine Specialist, Hospital Universitario Fundación Alcorcón Associate Lecturer, Departament of Legal Medicine (UCM)
Eduardo Pacios, Specialist in Radiology, Hospital Príncipe de Asturias
Pilar Pinto. Specialist in Legal and Forensic Medicine. Associate Lecturer, Department of Legal Medicine (UCM)
Diego Real de Asúa, Internal Medicine Specialist, Hospital La Princesa
Emanuele Valenti, Doctor in the History of Science. Research Lecturer, University of Bristol
Tayra Velasco, ICU Nurse at HCSC and Associate Lecturer in Bioethics at the Faculty of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Podiatry (UCM)
The Master’s programme is taught part-time over two academic years (October 2022-June 2024).
Classes will take place between October 16, 2023 and July 15, 2024
Academic calendar 2nd course 2nd edition (2022-2024)
Classes will take place between October 16, 2023 and June 28, 2024
Students have up to four exam sessions to pass each subject, two per enrolled academic year in the current syllabus. The four sessions include marked attempts and those not taken. Regardless of the maximum number of sessions, in order to ensure a minimum a academic performance and reasonable qualification, students must pass at least 50% of the enrolled ECTS credits each academic year. Failure to attain this percentage will lead to students being unable to re-enrol to continue their programme at the UIMP.
Students enrolled on the master’s programme shall, after finishing and passing the degree, be awarded the Official Master’s Degree in Clinical Bioethics, issued by the Vice-Chancellor of the UIMP.