Alzheimer's: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Ethical Dilemmas (NA1802)

Course Format

This course is online. All course material is available online and is accessible immediately after purchase from your account homepage. Certificate of Completion is available immediately upon passing the exam.

Course Overview

This course presents the disease of Alzheimer's. We will discuss the causes, risks, tests, and treatments available as well as explaining the difference between dementia and Alzheimer's disease. There are tips for caregivers and ways to manage difficult behaviors that are associated with Alzheimer's, as well as medications that can be used.

A broader discussion will be presented around end of life and related ethical concerns and considerations. End of life care is especially difficult when the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is present and ethical dilemmas are involved. We will provide several case studies to assist students with those difficult decisions. There will be a discussion around ethical considerations as they relate to the CCMC Code of Professional Conduct – these case studies will provide takeaways that allow for application in your daily practice.

The codes of conduct for CDMS and CRC are also reviewed in relation to those difficult ethical dilemmas. All the codes have an ethical decision-making process and that process is used in the case studies.

This course is ETHICS PRE-APPROVED for CCM, CRC, CVRP (2hrs), CLCP, & MSCC

Course Objectives

1. Discuss the difference between dementia and Alzheimer's disease


2. Present the tests done to diagnose Alzheimer's


3. Explain the difficult behaviors associated with Alzheimer's and methods to manage those behaviors


4. List the risks for Alzheimer's disease and possible ways to prevent the disease


5. Discuss the basic ethical principles at the end of life and what specific dilemmas are present when Alzheimer's is the diagnosis.


6. Discuss what the professional codes of conduct of CCM, CRC, and CDMS state regarding those ethical dilemmas and considerations and the process to resolve the dilemma according to the codes.

Course Outline