Background: As a normative theory, care ethics has become widely theorized and accepted. However, there remains a lack of clarity in relation to its use in practice, and a care ethics framework for practice. Maternity care is fraught with ethical issues and care ethics may provide an avenue to enhance ethical sensitivity. Aim: The purpose of this scoping review is to determine how care ethics is used amongst health professions, and to collate the information in data charts to create a (...) care ethics framework and definition for midwifery practice. Method: The scoping review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) and Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) recommendations. The search was applied to the databases CINAHL, MEDLINE, PschInfo and Pubmed which were searched in September 2019 and again in July 2021. The inclusion criteria were guided by the mnemonic for search terms: Participants, Concept, and Context (PCC) and included variations of health care professionals, care ethics and utilization. The search was limited to qualitative studies published in English between 2010 and 2021. A data extraction tool was used to extract and synthesize data into categories. The articles were screened for eligibility by title, abstract and full text review, by two independent reviewers. Ethical Considerations: The scoping review was guided by ethical conduct respecting authorship and referencing sources. Results: Twelve of the initially identified 129 studies were included in the scoping review. Data synthesis yielded four categories of care ethics use by health professionals: relationship, context, attention to power and caring practices. In combination, the evidence forms a framework for care ethics use in midwifery practice. Conclusion: Care ethics use by health professionals enhances ethical sensitivity. A framework and definition for care ethics for midwifery practice is proposed. This review will be of interest to midwives and other health practitioners seeking to enhance ethical sensitivity. (shrink)

This paper shows that beyond the ethical issues of autonomy and human dignity there some dynamics of vulnerabilities elicited by Alzheimers disease. It therefore underscores how the ethics of care moral lens offers ethically sensitive ways of engaging the individual and social vulnerabilities of associated with AD. Ultimately, the paper highlights some of the social implications of such an approach.

The present article considers conflicts and conflict regulation in hospices. The authors carried out a qualitative study in three hospices in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, to explore how conflicts arise and how conflict regulation proceeds. Hospice nurses should act according to a set of ethical codes, to mission statements of the institution and to professional standards of care. In practice the subjective interpretations of codes and/or models concerning questions of care are causes of conflicts among nurses, with doctors, patients and family (...) members. The management has two choices to react to these conflicts. It can either tolerate the conflicts, as long as they do not disturb the daily routine. Or it can increase the degree of organisation by integrating the different viewpoints into its own program and/or by restructuring its organisational units. (shrink)

Background:In the face of scarcity, nurses may inevitably delay or omit some nursing interventions and give priority to others. This increases the risk of adverse patient outcomes and threatens safety, quality, and dignity in care. However, it is not clear if there is an ethical element in nursing care rationing and how nurses experience the phenomenon in its ethical perspective.Objectives:The purpose was to synthesize studies that relate care rationing with the ethical perspectives of nursing, and find the deeper, moral meaning (...) of this phenomenon.Research design:A systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative studies was used. Searching was based on guidelines suggested by Joana Brigs Institute, while the synthesis has drawn from the methodology described. Primary studies were sought from nine electronic databases and manual searches. The explicitness of reporting was assed using consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research. Nine studies involving 167 nurse participants were included. Synthesis resulted in 35 preliminary themes, 14 descriptive themes, and four analytical themes. Discussion of relationships between themes revealed a new thematic framework.Ethical consideration:Every effort has been taken, for the thoroughness in searching and retrieving the primary studies of this synthesis, and in order for them to be treated accurately, fairly and honestly and without intentional misinterpretations of their findings.Discussion:Within limitations of scarcity, nurses face moral challenges and their decisions may jeopardize professional values, leading to role conflict, feelings of guilt, distress and difficulty in fulfilling a morally acceptable role. However, more research is needed to support certain relationships.Conclusions:Related literature is limited. The few studies found highlighted the essence of justice, equality in care and in values when prioritizing care—with little support to the ethical effects of rationing on nurses. Further research on ethical dimension of care rationing may illuminate other important aspects of this phenomenon. (shrink)

Drawing upon the practice of caregiving and the insights of feminist care ethics, I offer a phenomenology of caregiving through the work of Eva Feder Kittay and Emmanuel Lévinas. I argue that caregiving is a material dialectic of embodied response involving moments of leveling, attention, and interruption. In this light, the Levinasian opposition between responding to another's singularity and leveling it via parity-based principles is belied in the experience of care. Contra much of response ethics’ and care ethics’ respective literatures, (...) this dialectic suggests that they are complementary in ways that productively illuminate themes of each. I conclude by suggesting that when response and care ethics are thought together through the experience of caregiving, such labors produce finite responsibility with infinite hope. (shrink)

Graduate nursing students should have a strong ethical theoretical foundation to identify and explore scientific and technological ethical issues impacting nursing care, to assume leadership positions in practice and education, and to conduct research contributing to nursing’s knowledge base. This paper reports the implementation and evaluation of a new ethics course at Turkish doctoral nursing programs. The first section describes course design and implementation. The second section evaluates the course and discusses results. Students’ evaluations indicated that the concept of caring (...) in key ethical theories, particularly care ethics, was vital to course content. The most preferred teaching method was case analysis. Students suggested increase in course length and credits, content inclusion of feminist ethics, and real-world knowledge application by other teaching strategies such as clinical practice visits and hospital ethics committee member participation. (shrink)

Straipsnyje analizuojamos bioetikoje vyraujančio pagarbos asmens autonomijai principo prielaidos. Remiantis antropologų L. Dumont’o ir C. Geertzo darbais parodoma, kaip pagarbos asmens autonomijai principas yra susijęs su vakarietiška, krikščioniška, individualistine asmens samprata bei iš to plaukiančiu racionalumo reikšmės įtvirtinimu informuoto sutikimo koncepte. Taip pat ginama idėja, kad būtina atsižvelgti į rūpesčio etikos, pabrėžiančios emocijų svarbą moralėje ir paremtos reliacinio asmens prielaida, pasiūlytas įžvalgas. Straipsnyje parodoma, kaip rūpesčio etikoje pasiūlyti normatyviniai rūpesčio idealai gali būti pritaikomi bioetiniame kontekste – konceptualizuojant rūpestį medicinos sferoje (...) galima pritaikyti Bourdieu pasiūlytą habitus konceptą ir išryškinti ne tik tarpasmeninių santykių svarbą moraliniam vystymuisi, bet ir įvairias sociokultūrines bei istorines įtakas, lemiančias tam tikrus mūsų elgsenos modelius. (shrink)