Virtue ethics and rural professional healthcare roles

Abstract

Because rural populations are at risk not only for clinically disparate care but also ethically disparate care, there is a need to enhance scholarship, research, and teaching about rural health care ethics. In this paper an argument for the applicability of a virtue ethics framework for professionals in rural healthcare is outlined. The argument serves as an illustration for how philosophical analysis of the ethical dimensions of rural healthcare can contribute practical solutions to rural health problems. An interprofessional multidisciplinary understanding of rural healthcare ethics must go beyond the distinct professional role morality that already develops within different professions. Such an understanding will better explain professional responses to the particular nuances of rural healthcare. Analysis of the distinct ethical nature of rural professional roles offers the potential to capture and explain the complex ethical dimensions of rural situations where access, multiple overlapping relationships, confidentiality, cultural safety, team practice, and/or small community clinician stress are issues. Here the framework is primarily applied to rural dual and multiple overlapping relationships. A key aim is to encourage healthcare professionals to think carefully before avoiding rural practice because of a fear of being unable to meet the ethical challenges associated with the demands of rural overlapping relationships.