Abstract
AimThe aim of this study was to examine the extent and nature of the available research literature on healthcare professionals’ ethical competence and to summarize the research findings in this field.DesignA scoping review guided by Arksey and O'Malleys methodological framework was conducted.MethodsSix databases including Pubmed/Medline, CINAHL, Web of Science Core Collection, PsycInfo, Philosophers’ Index, and Scopus were searched systematically. Of 1,476 nonduplicate citations, 17 matched the inclusion criteria.ResultsFindings revealed that healthcare professionals’ ethical competence is a limited but topical research area. The focus areas of the studies were conceptualization, measuring, and realization of the ethical competence. The studies provided varying definitions and constructions for ethical competence and a few instruments to measure ethical competence were identified. Research in this area seems to be in a transition phase from theorization to empirical measurement. Methodologically, the research was rather heterogeneous and mainly focused on nurses.
Highlights
In recent decades, ethical demands on healthcare professionals have increased due to factors such as scarce resources (Kälvemark, Höglund, Hansson, Westerholm, & Arnetz, 2004), need for prioriti‐ zation (de Groot et al, 2017) and improved medical and technological advances which expand treatment and care options (Fleck, 2013)
Ethics courses have been included in curricula for healthcare professionals, and ethical committees, ethical rounds, and educations have been implemented into healthcare organizations to support healthcare professionals in handling ethically demanding situations (Chao, Chang, Yang, & Clark, 2017; Molewijk, Zadelhoff, Lendemeijer, & Widdershoven, 2008)
Ethical competence is a precondition for quality health care
Summary
Ethical demands on healthcare professionals have increased due to factors such as scarce resources (Kälvemark, Höglund, Hansson, Westerholm, & Arnetz, 2004), need for prioriti‐ zation (de Groot et al, 2017) and improved medical and technological advances which expand treatment and care options (Fleck, 2013). To meet this development, different ethical codes and guidelines have been developed to guide healthcare professionals’ behaviours and actions (Dahnke, 2014; Numminen, Arend, & Leino‐Kilpi, 2009). According to another consid‐ eration, ethical competence consists of a moral agent’s ability to iden‐ tify value conflicts and ethical dimensions, ability to choose one value
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