Are codes and guidelines the right way to go? On ethical competence in medical practice
Format
Completed research project
Funding
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation) www.rj.se
Time table
2006-2009
Description
The number of professional guidelines, research ethics codes and legal regulations have increased tremendously in the last few years. In bioethics there is a strong focus upon such codes and guidelines. However, the fact that ethical concerns increasingly take on a legal form might create a situation where a procedure of legal interpretations replaces ethical reflection.
In this project, the concept of “ethical competence” within the field of medical practice and research is investigated. Further, the importance of ethical guidelines in the development of such competence is studied. In a philosophical study a number of ethical guidelines are analyzed. In an empirical investigation doctors and nurses involved in medical practice and research are interviewed about how they make ethical decisions and whether or not they are familiar with any ethical guidelines for their work.
Finally, the results from these investigations are analyzed through a critical philosophical method where the contemporary attitude to ethical regulations is related to models of virtue ethics and communicative theory. The analysis is also made from a gender perspective. The project aims to reach a reasonable model of ethical regulation, given the goal of developing responsible researchers and health care givers in order to protect patients and research persons.
Publications
Höglund AT, Eriksson S, Helgesson G, The role of guidelines in ethical competence-building: Perceptions among research nurses and physicians, Clinical Ethics, 2010;5:95-102.
Höglund AT, Helgesson G, Eriksson S, Ethical dilemmas and ethical competence in the daily work of research nurses, Health Care Analysis, 2010;18:239-251.
Eriksson S, Höglund AT, Helgesson G, Do Ethical Guidelines give Guidance? A Critical Examination of Eight Ethics Regulations, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 2008;17:15-29.
Helgesson G, Eriksson S, Against the principle that the individual shall have priority over science, Journal of Medical Ethics 2008;34:54-56.
Eriksson S, Helgesson G, Höglund AT, Being, Doing, and Knowing: Developing Ethical Competence in Health Care, Journal of Academic Ethics, 2007;5:207-216..
More information
- Anna T. Höglund, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor
Collaborators
Stefan Eriksson, Senior Researcher, Associate Professor
Anna T. Höglund, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor
(Project leader)
Gert Helgesson, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor
Department of Learning, Management and Ethics (LIME),
Karolinska Institutet
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2010-01-27