Theory and practice in interprofessional ethics: A framework for understanding ethical issues in health care teams

Abstract

Interprofessional teamwork is an essential and expanding form of health care practice. While moral issues arising in teamwork relative to the patient have been explored, the analysis of ethical issues regarding the function of the team itself is limited. This paper develops a conceptual framework for organizing and analyzing the different types of ethical issues in interprofessional teamwork. This framework is a matrix that maps the elements of principles, structures, and processes against individual, team, and organizational levels. A case study is presented that illustrates different dimensions of these topics, based on the application of this framework. Finally, a set of conclusions and recommendations is presented to summarize the integration of theory and practice in interprofessional ethics, including: (i) importance of a framework, (ii) interprofessional ethics discourse, and (iii) interprofessional ethics as an emerging field. The goal of this paper is to begin a dialogue and discussion on the ethical issues confronting interprofessional teams and to lay the foundation for an expanding discourse on interprofessional ethics.

Supporting ethics educators in Canadian occupational therapy and physical therapy programs: A national interprofessional knowledge exchange project

“…The potential for extending interprofessional ethics education to include other health disciplines, such as speech language therapy, nursing, pharmacy or medicine was not discussed during the workshop. However, several studies suggest the potential benefit of such wider interprofessional activities for enhancing student learning (Clark, Cott, & Drinka, 2007).…”

CME Congress 2012: Improving Today's CME and Looking Toward the Future of CEHP

“…11 The results of several pilot programs are beginning to be reported in the literature and the theoretical underpinnings of IPE are beginning to coalesce. [12][13][14][15][16] Issues related to learners, educators, and the learning context in IPE have been identified, analyzed, and catalogued. 17 Factors contributing to the success of IPE have been described as well.…”

Discussion of Ideologies Underlying Interprofessional Health Education in the Ontario, Canada Context

“…Teamwork literature may not be conceptually robust enough to manage situations such as these. I support further inquiry into Clark's [6] ethical considerations for IPE/P Perhaps the only legitimate realm for more generalized programming for IPE/P is the not yet well defined "aesthetic" aspects of practice, which go beyond skills. These may situate naturally within the Humanities such as ethics, concepts of justice, morality, fairness, freedom, democracy, the nature of mankind and others.…”

“…However, recently, a few scholars have synthesized the literature on IPE [5], [7], [28], [34], [35] and some have attempted to offer initial frameworks [19]. Clark et al [6] have introduced a discussion on the ethical implications of IPE and respective practical problems that could emerge in settings where teams are accountable instead of individuals each functioning in their respective professions. Beyond this, though, IPE seems to be approached as a positive good instead of situated in the existing policy, legal and political context.…”

“…There have been a few attempts to conceptualize or advance frameworks or hierarchies for the following organizational constructs within IPE: organizational change [17]; teamwork / working together / collaboration [10], [11], [18], [29], [6] and shared decision-making [22].…”