This article reports a survey of nurses in different cultural settings to reveal their perceptions of ethical role responsibilities relevant to nursing practice. Drawing on the Confucian theory of ethics, the first section attempts to understand nursing ethics in the context of multiple role relationships. The second section reports the administration of the Role Responsibilities Questionnaire (RRQ) to a sample of nurses in China (n = 413), the USA (n = 163), and Japan (n = 667). Multidimensional preference analysis revealed (...) the patterns of rankings given by the nurses to the statements they considered as important ethical responsibilities. The Chinese nurses were more virtue based in their perception of ethical responsibilities, the American nurses were more principle based, and the Japanese nurses were more care based. The findings indicate that the RRQ is a sensitive instrument for outlining the embedded sociocultural factors that influence nurses’ perceptions of ethical responsibilities in the realities of nursing practice. This study could be important in the fostering of partnerships in international nursing ethics. (shrink)

Using the 2000-2010 South Korean historical medical dramas Heo Jun, Dae Jang Geum, and Jejoongwon as case studies, this article examines televisual reimaginations of Korean medical modernity as interpretative popular culture texts. Particularly in the areas of the anatomical sciences and surgery, modern medicine’s emancipatory potentials in these productions are set semi-fictitiously in pre-modern Joseon historical contexts. Dramaturgically challenging entrenched social hierarchies and ossified cultural taboos of Institutionalized Confucianism, these dramas’ progressive physician-protagonists emphasize the universality and impartiality of medical knowledge (...) in what is herein termed as Generative Confucianism. (shrink)

Using the 2000-2010 South Korean historical medical dramas Heo Jun, Dae Jang Geum, and Jejoongwon as case studies, this article examines televisual reimaginations of Korean medical modernity as interpretative popular culture texts. Particularly in the areas of the anatomical sciences and surgery, modern medicine’s emancipatory potentials in these productions are set semi-fictitiously in pre-modern Joseon historical contexts. Dramaturgically challenging entrenched social hierarchies and ossified cultural taboos of Institutionalized Confucianism, these dramas’ progressive physician-protagonists emphasize the universality and impartiality of medical knowledge (...) in what is herein termed as Generative Confucianism. (shrink)

Using the 2000-2010 South Korean historical medical dramas Heo Jun, Dae Jang Geum, and Jejoongwon as case studies, this article examines televisual reimaginations of Korean medical modernity as interpretative popular culture texts. Particularly in the areas of the anatomical sciences and surgery, modern medicine’s emancipatory potentials in these productions are set semi-fictitiously in pre-modern Joseon historical contexts. Dramaturgically challenging entrenched social hierarchies and ossified cultural taboos of Institutionalized Confucianism, these dramas’ progressive physician-protagonists emphasize the universality and impartiality of medical knowledge (...) in what is herein termed as Generative Confucianism. (shrink)

This paper reports part of a longitudinal research project, which sought to capture students’ conceptualization of caring practice as they progressed to different levels of study in a nursing diploma programme in Hong Kong. Model emulation was found to be an effective means of focusing students’ learning processes on the moral aspects of nursing practice. The theory of model emulation from a Chinese perspective and how it is applied to create a learning context to allow students to acquire a moral (...) sense of nursing are discussed. The participating students are invited to be sincere enquirers in the pursuit of the good embedded in practice through introspective self-examination and dialogue. They are asked to describe and share their experience of positive and negative examples of nursing in written accounts. Van Kaam’s phenomenological method was adopted to explicate the good and bad constituents of nursing from these examples, with the students assuming an active role in the explication process. The explication reveals that the students were able to articulate the good and bad practices in a variety of patient care situations. (shrink)

Familialism is a significant mindset within Singaporean culture. Its effects through the practice of familial determination and filial piety, which calls for a family centric approach to care determination over and above individual autonomy, affect many elements of local care provision. However, given the complex psychosocial, political and cultural elements involved, the applicability and viability of this model as well as that of a physician-led practice is increasingly open to conjecture. This article will investigate some of these concerns before proffering (...) a decision-making process based upon a multidisciplinary team approach. It will be shown that such a multidimensional and multiprofessional approach is more in keeping with the inclusive and patient-centred ethos of palliative care than prevailing practices. It will be shown that such an approach will also be better placed to deliver holistic, coherent and sensitive end-of-life care that palliative care espouses. (shrink)

Historically, the preconditions for the emergence of bioethics in China. were political reforms and their applications. The Hanzhong Euthanasia Case and the publication of Qiu Ren-zong's academic work Bioethics played a significant role in the development of bioethics in China. Other contributory factors include the establishment of the Chinese Society of Medical Ethics/Chinese Medical Association (C.M.A), the publication of the Journal of Chinese Medical Ethics, and the teaching and education of bioethics in China. Major achievements of bioethics in China include (...) the establishment of ethics committee and ethics review system, active international communication and cooperation among the academic circles, and the successful management of the 8th World Congress of Bioethics in Beijing in 2006. Chinese bioethics focus on native Chinese realities and conditions, absorb the international research achievements in relevant fields, and combine international ideas with traditional Chinese doctrines. Admittedly, there are still some aspects to be improved, yet bioethics has attracted a lot of attention from the core leadership in China and has gained sound financial support, which augers well for its further development. This article also briefly introduces the development of bioethics in Hong Kong and Taiwan, China. (shrink)

Appropriate and balanced decision-making is sentinel to goal setting and the provision of appropriate clinical care that are attuned to preserving the best interests of the patient. Current family-led decision-making in family-centric societies such as those in Singapore and other countries in East Asia are believed to compromise these objectives in favor of protecting familial interests. Redressing these skewed clinical practices employing autonomy-based patient-centric approaches however have been found wanting in their failure to contend with wider sociocultural considerations that impact (...) care determinations. Evaluation of a number of alternative decision-making frameworks set out to address the shortcomings of prevailing atomistic and family-centric decision-making models within the confines of end-of-life care prove these alternative frameworks to be little better at protecting the best interests of vulnerable patients. As a result, we propose the Welfare Model that we believe is attentive to the relevant socio-culturally significant considerations of a particular case and better meets the needs of end-of-life care goals of preserving the welfare of patients. Employing a multi-professional team evaluation guided by regnant psychosocial, legal, and clinical standards and the prevailing practical and clinical realities of the particular patient’s setting the Welfare Model provides a clinically relevant, culturally sensitive, transparent, and evidence-based approach to care determinations. (shrink)