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Professional Ethics and Labor Disputes : Medicine and Nursing in the United Kingdom.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>10/2000
<mark>Journal</mark>Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
Issue number4
Volume9
Number of pages15
Pages (from-to)483-497
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

The term “industrial action” includes any noncooperation with management, such as strict “working to rule,” refusal of certain duties, going slow, and ultimately withdrawal of labor. The latter form of action, striking, has posed particular problems for professional ethics, especially in those professions that provide healthcare, because of the potential impact on patients' well-being. Examination of the issues, however, displays a difference in response between the healthcare professions, in particular between doctors and nurses. In considering the ethics of industrial (especially strike) action there are various aspects of professional ethics to consider: (1) whether there is a tension between industrial action and the very notion of professional ethics; (2) what specific issues arise in the case of healthcare professions; (3) what, if anything, can explain and/or justify different responses from the medical and nursing professions?

Bibliographic note

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=CQH The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 9 (4), pp 483-497 2000, © 2000 Cambridge University Press.