An Exploration of How Ethics Informs Health Care Practice (original) (raw)

An exploration of how ethics informs physiotherapy and podiatry practice

2016

Introduction Moral complexities exist in every day health care practice creating conflicting responsibilities in providing care. Health care ethics (HCE) enable an applied practical linkage of theory and practice to create professional behaviour that focuses on service user benefit. This thesis explored how physiotherapists and podiatrists embodied health care ethics in their practice. Methods Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a hermeneutical approach was utilised in order to explore how HCE informs physiotherapy and podiatry practice. Whilst always involving interpretation, this method has the ability to describe the human experience as it is lived. Using a framework embedded in hermeneutic IPA facilitated an inquiry that promotes the participant’s own reflections of experiential practice (phenomenology) and then interpreting them (hermeneutical) in the relevant and wider context. Purposively sampled individual interviews were carried out (n=21) in an attempt to int...

Beyond a code of ethics: phenomenological ethics for everyday practice

Physiotherapy Research International, 2010

Physical therapy, like all health-care professions, governs itself through a code of ethics that defi nes its obligations of professional behaviours. The code of ethics provides professions with a consistent and common moral language and principled guidelines for ethical actions. Yet, and as argued in this paper, professional codes of ethics have limits applied to ethical decision-making in the presence of ethical dilemmas. Part of the limitations of the codes of ethics is that there is no particular hierarchy of principles that govern in all situations. Instead, the exigencies of clinical practice, the particularities of individual patient's illness experiences and the transformative nature of chronic illnesses and disabilities often obscure the ethical concerns and issues embedded in concrete situations. Consistent with models of expert practice, and with contemporary models of patient-centred care, we advocate and describe in this paper a type of interpretative and narrative approach to moral practice and ethical decision-making based on phenomenology. The tools of phenomenology that are well defi ned in research are applied and examined in a case that illustrates their use in uncovering the values and ethical concerns of a patient. Based on the deconstruction of this case on a phenomenologist approach, we illustrate how such approaches for ethical understanding can help assist clinicians and educators in applying principles within the context and needs of each patient.

Researching lived experience in health care: Significance for care ethics

Nursing Ethics, 2011

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the usefulness of qualitative research for studying the ethics of care, bringing to light the lived experience of health care recipients, together with the importance of methods that allow reconstruction of the processes underlying this lived experience. Lived experiences of families being approached for organ donation, parents facing the imminent death of their child and patients being treated using stem cell transplantation are used to illustrate how ethical principles are differentiated, modified or contradicted by the narrative context of persons concerned. The integration of empirical data into ethics will help caregivers in their ethical decision making and may enrich care ethics as a narrative and interpretative field.

Emerging themes in the everyday ethics of primary care: a report from an interdisciplinary workshop

Clinical Ethics, 2011

We report key themes arising from a postgraduate workshop organized by the King's Interdisciplinary Discussion Society (KIDS) held in April 2011. KIDS believe that health is a phenomenon that transcends disciplinary boundaries, and therefore issues relating to health care and medical ethics are best addressed with an interdisciplinary approach. The workshop, entitled 'Everyday Ethics and Primary Healthcare', included poster presentations and oral presentations from participants from a range of disciplines and occupational backgrounds which highlighted the challenges faced by primary health-care workers. Three common themes emerged: the impersonal and cumbersome work environment that can result from the encroachment of rationalizing tools; the tension between 'ethical practice as an ongoing sensibility' and 'ethical practice as "box-ticking"'; and the contested nature of what constitutes 'health'. Participants felt that the interdisciplinary perspective was helpful in elucidating the various ethical issues arising in primary health care.

The changing landscape of care: does ethics education have a new role to play in health practice?

BMC Medical Ethics, 2015

Background: In the UK, higher education and health care providers share responsibility for educating the workforce. The challenges facing health practice also face health education and as educators we are implicated, by the way we design curricula and through students' experiences and their stories. This paper asks whether ethics education has a new role to play, in a context of major organisational change, a global and national austerity agenda and the ramifications of disturbing reports of failures in care. It asks: how would it be different if equal amounts of attention were given to the conditions in which health decisions are made, if the ethics of organisational and policy decisions were examined, and if guiding collaborations with patients and others who use services informed ethics education and its processes? Discussion: This is in three parts. In part one an example from an inspection report is used to question the ways in which clinical events are decontextualised and constructed for different purposes. Ramifications of a decision are reflected upon and a case made for different kinds of allegiances to be developed. In part two I go on to broaden the scope of ethics education and make a case for beginning with the messy realities of practice rather than with overarching moral theories. The importance of power in ethical practice is introduced, and in part three the need for greater political and personal awareness is proposed as a condition of moral agency. Summary: This paper proposes that ethics education has a new contribution to make, in supporting and promoting ethical practiceas it is defined in and by the everyday actions and decisions of practitioners and people who need health services. Ethics education that promotes moral agency, rather than problem solving approaches, would explore not only clinical problems, but also the difficult and contested arenas in which they occur. It would seek multiple perspectives and would begin with places and people, and their priorities. It would support students to locate their practice in imperfect global contexts, and to understand how individual and collective forms of power can influence healthcare quality.

Physiotherapists’ ethical behavior in professional practice: a qualitative study

Frontiers in Medicine, 2023

Background: In health professions, ethics is considered a fundamental competence. The increase in clinical autonomy in the field of physiotherapy is associated with an increase in ethical situations in their clinical practice. Objective: To explore the ethics of the clinical relationship between physiotherapists and patients, the ethics training received by physiotherapists, and if in the clinical context, physiotherapists identify the necessary attitudes and apply the ethical recommendations of the profession for the ethical situations they experience. Methods: A qualitative exploratory and descriptive study was performed with physiotherapists. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using content analysis, as proposed by Krippendorf. The study protocol was approved by the University of Valencia Ethics Committee of Human Research. Results: This study included 15 physiotherapists (66.66% women, average age = 42.2 years), which was sufficient to reach data saturation. We identified four categories: (i) Ethics of the clinical relationship (ethical values, principles, and norms; type of clinical relationship), (ii) Ethics training received (during the physiotherapy studies; current training of students; low importance of ethics in the curriculum), (iii) Necessary attitudes for professional ethical practice (main attitudes were identified: personal attitudes and professional attitudes); (iv) Experiences from professional practice (general; public sector vs. private sector). Conclusion: The ethics of the clinical relationship between physiotherapists and patients is determined by the attitudes of the practitioner, which are the result of his or her values and previous experiences; and are very centered on ethics of indication (founded mainly on the principles of Beneficence and Non-Maleficence). It is necessary to improve the ethical training received by physiotherapists, which is poorly focused on professional attitudes.

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CLINICAL ETHICS SUPPORT SERVICES: NARRATIVE AND HERMENEUTICAL PERSPECTIVES

Bioethics, 2011

In this paper we introduce narrative and hermeneutical perspectives to clinical ethics support services (CESS). We propose a threefold consideration of 'theory' and show how it is interwoven with 'practice' as we go along. First, we look at theory in its foundational role: in our case 'narrative ethics' and 'philosophical hermeneutics' provide a theoretical base for clinical ethics by focusing on human identities entangled in stories and on moral understanding as a dialogical process. Second, we consider the role of theoretical notions in helping practitioners to understand their situation in clinical ethics practice, by using notions like 'story ', 'responsibility', or 'vulnerability' to make explicit and explain their practical experience. Such theoretical notions help us to interpret clinical situations from an ethical perspective and to foster moral awareness of practitioners. And, thirdly, we examine how new theoretical concepts are developed by interpreting practice, using practice to form and improve our ethical theory. In this paper, we discuss this threefold use of theory in clinical ethics support services by reflecting on our own theoretical assumptions, methodological steps and practical experiences as ethicists, and by providing examples from our daily work. In doing so, we illustrate that theory and practice are interwoven, as theoretical understanding is dependent upon practical experience, and vice-versa.

Being ethical and bioethical in daily life of primary health care: nurses’ perceptions

Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 2022

Objectives: to understand the perceptions of ethics and bioethics and how to be ethical and bioethical in daily life of Primary Health Care, from the perspective of nurses. Methods: this is a Holistic-qualitative Multiple Case Study, based on Comprehensive Everyday Sociology, with 54 participants. Results: two subcategories and the category Being ethical and bioethical in daily life of PHC: nurses’ perceptions emerged. The ethical and bioethical being permeates a subjective and abstract self, whose fears, anxieties and concerns are intertwined with the human and professional dimensions in daily work and in personal-professional relationship. Ethics and bioethics perceptions emerge from subjectivity, established relationships, lived experiences and daily actions of nurses essential to the profession, professionals and individuals to be cared for. Final Considerations: ethical and bioethical perceptions and attitudes are essential to care, management and organizational actions, health...

Ethical Problems in Issues of Daily Practice of Health Professionals with Patients

2013

Background: Ethical theory i s no longer isolated from empirical research. There are few studies on what influence ethical decisions of health professionals in primary care. Objectives:The aim of this study is to analyse the ethical attitudes of health professionals in dealing with p atients. Methods: A quantitative cross -sectional study involving doctors and nurses. A scale to assess the professionalsethical attitudes was built, validated with a pre -test, pilot study and the application of Cronbachs Alpha and used through a self - administered questionnaire. The setting of the study was the Health Centres of the Regional Health Authority of the Central Region of Portugal. Results:The author received questionnaires from 370 health professionals: 180 physicians and 190 nurses. The ethi cal attitudes of health professionals do not seem to be influenced by gender or age. However, doctors when compared to nurses seem to have stronger ethical attitudes in their relationship with patien...