The role of emotions in health professional ethics teaching

Abstract

In this paper, we put forward the view that emotions have a legitimate and important role in health professional ethics education. This paper draws upon our experience of running a narrative ethics education programme for ethics educators from a range of healthcare disciplines. It describes the way in which emotions may be elicited in narrative ethics teaching and considers the appropriate role of emotions in ethics education for health professionals. We argue there is a need for a pedagogical framework to productively incorporate the role of emotions in health professional ethics teaching. We suggest a theoretical basis for an ethics pedagogy that integrates health professional emotions in both the experience and the analysis of ethical practice, and identify a range of strategies to support the educator to incorporate emotion within their ethics teaching.

Process factors facilitating and inhibiting medical ethics teaching in small groups

“…These refinements also correspond with the recent attempts to formulate a theoretical framework for integrating emotions into both the experience and the analysis of ethical practice overall 38 39…”

The importance of moral emotions for effective collaboration in culturally diverse healthcare teams

“…Typically normative ethical frameworks are advocated and taught; a blend of deontology, utilitarianism, consequentialism and a principles approach is applied to clinical cases (Baldwin, ; Molewijk, Kleinlugtenbelt, & Widdershoven, ). Therefore, health professionals may have a tacit sense of the emotions inherent in moral deliberation yet dismiss their relevance and may also be without language and processes to aid deliberation on these emotions (Gillam, Delany, Guillemin, & Warmington, ). However, we are emotional beings, which means that our emotions ‘cannot usually be had or given up at will’, and thus influence the morality of the way we act (Oakley, ; p. 135).…”

“…Enacting moral agency is potentially more attainable and sustainable when moral emotions are integrated with ethical decision‐making principles and frameworks as an intrinsic aspect of moral deliberation (Gillam et al., ; Molewijk, et al, 2011). Scott (), drawing on Aristotle, dismisses reliance on reason and saliently argues that nurses are able to harness virtuous practice when they use educated emotion to inform moral perception.…”

“…Commonly, emotion is only perceived to be detrimental and irrelevant; therefore, moral emotions are not available as a resource for additional conscious reflection (Gillam et al., ; Oakley, ). We concur with the Aristotelian argument that emotions are accompanied by thoughts and that reflection on these thoughts and their reasonableness can legitimately guide virtuous action (Molewijk et al., ).…”

Reflections on learning and teaching medical ethics in UK medical schools

“…To counter this, Gillam et al , for example, use narrative ethics which considers personal experiences and emotional responses to them 32. We also need to be more aware of cultural pluralism among our students, teachers and patients so that students learn to work with colleagues and care for patients who have a different world view.…”