| Course | HCR 210 Ethics for the Health Care Professional |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 1 |
| Paper type | Ethics essay |
| Length | About 556 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Arizona State University |
| Program | BS in Health Care Coordination |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HCR 210 Module 1
From My Values to Our Language: Honesty, a Family's Request and the Case for Shared Ethical Principles
Student Name
BS in Health Care Coordination, Arizona State University
HCR 210: Ethics for the Health Care Professional
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
From My Values to Our Language: Honesty, a Family's Request and the Case for Shared Ethical Principles
A Value I Hold
Honesty is the value I hold most firmly. I was raised to believe that people deserve the truth even when it hurts, and in my work as a patient access representative I see how quickly trust breaks when people feel information was hidden from them. Values like this one are personal: they come from family, faith and experience, and they shape how I react before I have time to think.
Where Values Collide
Personal values become harder to apply when other people's values point in a different direction. Consider a situation that arises in many hospitals. An 82-year-old man is found to have advanced pancreatic cancer. His daughter, who has cared for him for years, asks the team not to tell him; she believes the news will take away his hope and that, in their family, adult children protect their parents from bad news. My instinct says he should be told. Her instinct, grounded in love and in her family's culture, says he should be protected. Both of us act from sincere values. If the team relied on private values alone, the decision would go to whoever spoke loudest. Clinicians who face such requests must balance respect for the patient's autonomy, professional truth telling and tolerance for different cultural values, and they should not assume that every member of a culture shares the same preferences (Rosenberg et al., 2017).
The Purpose of a Shared Ethical Language
Health care ethics offers a language that does not belong to any one person's upbringing. Clinical ethics leans most often on four principles, which are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice. These give a team common terms for describing what is at stake (Beauchamp & Childress, 2019; Varkey, 2021). Applied to this case:
Using these terms moves the conversation from "my value against yours" to questions everyone can examine. Respect for autonomy, for example, does not require forcing information on someone. A clinician can ask the patient how much he wishes to know and whom he would like involved in decisions, which honors both his rights and the daughter's concern.
| Principle | Question it raises in the case |
|---|---|
| Autonomy | Does the patient want to know, and who should decide how much he hears? |
| Beneficence | What disclosure would actually help him plan and receive good care? |
| Nonmaleficence | Could blunt or unwanted disclosure cause harm, and could withholding it harm him more? |
| Justice | Is he being treated as any other competent adult would be? |
Ethical Responsibilities
Shared language comes with shared responsibility. Health professionals have duties that go beyond their personal preferences: to obtain informed consent, to avoid deception and to respect patients' choices about information. My personal value of honesty happens to line up with these duties, but if it did not, the profession's commitments would still bind me. Accepting duties that outrank my preferences is what separates a professional from a private individual.
What This Means for My Practice
Thinking through this case changed how I see my own value. Honesty, for a care coordinator, means not lying and not hiding information the patient wants, but it also means listening first. A shared ethical vocabulary will help me explain my concerns to colleagues without dismissing families whose values differ from mine.
References
Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2019). Principles of biomedical ethics (8th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Rosenberg, A. R., Starks, H., Unguru, Y., Feudtner, C., & Diekema, D. (2017). Truth telling in the setting of cultural differences and incurable pediatric illness: A review. JAMA Pediatrics, 171(11), 1113-1119. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.2568
Varkey, B. (2021). Principles of clinical ethics and their application to practice. Medical Principles and Practice, 30(1), 17-28. https://doi.org/10.1159/000509119
What the HCR 210 Module 1 instructions ask for
HCR 210's Values and Ethical Thinking in Healthcare assignment is worth 15 of the course's 248 points and follows the introductory post on values, beliefs and morals. The posted description says students begin to connect personal values to shared ethical thinking in health care, exploring value tensions, ethical responsibilities and the purpose of a shared ethical language in navigating complex decisions. All written work in the course follows APA style, double spaced in 12-point Times New Roman with references, and points are deducted when format and citations are not followed. Generative AI tools are off limits in this course, so the reflection on your values must be yours alone. Expect to build on this paper later in the Understanding Personal Perspectives assignment.
Inside the HCR 210 Module 1 example
The sample moves in the order the description sets out. It names one personal value and where it comes from, then places that value in a realistic tension: a family asking that an older patient not be told of a serious diagnosis. A short table shows how the four principles of biomedical ethics turn a clash of private values into questions a team can examine together. The paper then separates professional responsibilities from personal preference and ends with what the exercise means for the writer's own practice as a care coordinator. Each move answers one part of the assignment, which keeps a short paper focused.
HCR 210 Module 1 rubric: what earns full marks
The assignment is graded on its Canvas rubric for 15 points. Values papers in ethics courses are usually credited for naming a specific personal value and its source, choosing a tension in which both sides hold defensible values, accurate use of ethical principles, a clear explanation of why shared language matters to teams, attention to professional duties and APA style that follows the manual. Credit drops when they describe values only in general terms, when the case has an obvious villain, when principles are listed without being applied and when citations or references are missing. Graders also notice whether the case is realistic and specific enough that the principles can do real work, so name the setting, the people and the decision.
HCR 210 Module 1 help from the desk
Choose a value you genuinely hold rather than the one that sounds best; your reflection will be more convincing. Pick a tension where you can argue the other side fairly. Define each principle you use in a sentence before applying it. Avoid concluding that your value simply wins; show how shared reasoning changes the decision or the way it is reached. Check APA formatting closely, since the syllabus deducts for it. If you are unsure which principles fit your case, the desk can talk through the options with you. A paragraph on how the shared language would change a team conversation, not just your own thinking, usually strengthens the paper.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Arizona State University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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HCR 210 Module 1 questions, answered
Where can I find a free HCR 210 Module 1 sample paper?
This page has a full HCR 210 Module 1 sample: a values and ethical thinking paper on honesty and a family's request to withhold a diagnosis.
What are the four principles of biomedical ethics?
Respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice, the framework used most often in clinical ethics.
Why do health care teams need a shared ethical language?
Team members hold different personal values, and common principles let them describe and examine a conflict instead of relying on private preference.
How much is the HCR 210 values assignment worth?
It is worth 15 of the course's 248 points.
Can I use AI in HCR 210?
No. The syllabus states that all assignments must be completed by the student.