Nursing ethics and its relation with power and work organization

Valéria Lerch Lunardi,Wilson Danilo Lunardi Filho,Mara Regina Santos Da Silva,Michele Salum Bulhosa,Jacqueline Sallete Dei Svaldi,Rosemary Silva Da Silveira

doi:10.1590/s0104-11692007000300020

Valéria Lerch Lunardi, Wilson Danilo Lunardi Filho + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-11692007000300020

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Abstract

Difficulties faced in the nursing routine, mainly in hospitals, have been reported without the resulting ethical implications to workers and especially to clients, been sufficiently questioned. The work organization can be the main source of suffering to nursing workers, related to the exercise of power of different actors involved in the health institutions, which can potentially cause multiple problems and distress of ethical order. This study aims to make a critical reflection about some relations between the nursing work organization, power relations and its ethical dimension. Strategies for an ethical performance of nurses and other nursing professionals in the organization of work in the healthcare institutions point to the need of these professionals exercise power in an ethical way.

Highlights

Due to its nature and characteristics, nursing work itself commonly involves coping with situations of suffering by clients, related to losses, disease, frustration and death, which can constitute a source of suffering for the workers who perform it
The organization of health/nursing work, on the other hand, considered as “in a way, the other person’s will”(2), can be a greater source of suffering for nursing workers and is related to the exercise of power by the multiple actors involved in health institutions
It is relevant to highlight that a power relation needs to be understood as an action not on the others, but as an action on the others’ action, whether these are real or possible

Summary

NURSING ETHICS AND ITS RELATION WITH POWER AND WORK ORGANIZATION

Nursing ethics and its relation with power and work organization. The work organization can be the main source of suffering to nursing workers, related to the exercise of power of different actors involved in the health institutions, which can potentially cause multiple problems and distress of ethical order. La organización del trabajo puede constituirse en una mayor fuente de sufrimiento para los trabajadores de enfermería, lo cual se relaciona al ejercicio del poder de los diferentes actores involucrados en las instituciones de salud, lo cual puede provocar múltiples problemas morales y sufrimiento moral. Se tiene la intención de explicitar por medio de una reflexión crítica, algunas relaciones entre la organización del trabajo de enfermería, las relaciones de poder presentes y su dimensión ética.

INTRODUCTION

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