Ethics and Professionalism in Healthcare: Transition and Challenges

Recent social developments, such as demographic change, skill shortages and new medical technologies, have necessitated a transition in the traditional roles of health-care professions. New forms of division of labour and inter-professional health-care education are emerging while at the same time ethical challenges, such as corruption and conflicts of interest, have to be mastered. This book addresses historical, conceptual and empirical aspects of professionalism and inter-professionalism in health care from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. The work is divided into five sections: historical and societal aspects of health care professions; learning and teaching medical professionalism; transformation of health care professions; professional leadership and team decision-making in health care; and ethical challenges to health care professionalism. The final chapter integrates the main ideas and perspectives on health-care professionalism which have been developed throughout the book and highlights how the work in the diverse disciplines is interrelated. The book will be a valuable reference for the many researchers and students with an interest in medical ethics, professionalism and comparative systems of healthcare.

Introduction, Sabine Salloch, Verena Sandow, Jan Schildmann and Jochen Vollmann. Part I Historical and Societal Aspects of Health-Care Professions: A shifting focus from patients to employees. Withdrawal of religious communities and the emergence of political activity in Protestant hospitals in Berlin between 1960 and 1990, Clemens Tangerding; How to write a letter. Physician's letters from the viewpoint of medical humanities, Katharina Furholzer. Part II Learning and Teaching Healthcare Professionalism: Collaborative decision-making - a normative synthesis of decision-making models in health care, Sarah Berger, Cornelia Mahler, Jobst-Hendrik Schultz, Joachim Szecsenyi and Katja Goetz; The Regensburg Model (`pain care manager'): an integrated interprofessional pain curriculum for health professionals in German-speaking countries, Kirstin Fragemann, Nicole Lindenberg, Bernhard M. Graf and Christoph H.R. Wiese. Part III Transformation of Health-Care Professions: Professionalism of health workforce in Ukraine, Tetiana Stepurko, Alona Goroshko and Paolo Carlo Belli; Transformation of the role of healthcare ethics committees and the concept of clinical ethics in Belarus: implications for medical professionalism, Andrei Famenka; Ethical problems concerning the international brain drain of healthcare professionals, Dorina Maria Stanescu. Part IV Professional Leadership and Team Decision-Making in Health Care: Substituted or supported decisions? Examining models of decision-making within interprofessional team decision-making for individuals at risk of lacking decision-making capacity, Gemma Clarke, Sarah Galbraith, Jeremy Woodward, Anthony Holland and Stephen Barclay; Attitudinal, motivational and behavioural correlates of ethical leadership in health care teams, Martina Sendula-Pavelic, Zoran Susanj and Ana Jakopec; Cooperation between managers and the medical profession in the context of strategic decision making in non-profit hospitals. A manageable challenge?, Stephanie Rusch. Part V Ethical Challenges to Health-Care Professionalism: Akrasia and obedience in medicine: deferring to authority in a decision you believe to be wrong, Tim Wray, Christopher Yu and Christopher Philbey; Professionalism in public health medicine and policy: the challenge of enhancement, Alex McKeown; Ethics and professionalism in health care - a position paper, Sarah Berger, Andrei Famenka, Kirstin Fragemann, Katharina Furholzer, Alex McKeown, Stephanie Rusch, Martina Sendula-Pavelic, Dorina Maria Stanescu, Tetiana Stepurko, Clemens Tangerding and Christopher Yu. Index.