ABSTRACT Carceral social workers have to balance ambivalences between the interest of incarcerated people and the criminal justice system. The professional ethics of social work practice provide some answers to this challenge. Nevertheless, they are strongly based in a humanist understanding of our world. We therefore set out to explore how social work practice in carceral settings unfolds and how we could understand it, not only from the perspective of traditional social work ethics but from one of posthuman care ethics. We mobilise this perspective to go beyond a traditional professional and ethical view of social work practice to ask what would be required in a carceral setting to acknowledge (incarcerated) people fully in their entanglement with the world and how spaces could open up for potential to unfold and flourish. We base our analysis and thoughts on fieldwork conducted in an open prison in Switzerland.

We review the ambiguous legacy of Emil Kraepelin. He established an approach that secured psychiatry's place as a medical specialty, and his methodology has dominated the profession and defined its long 20th century, 1899-2026. However, his eugenic views weigh heavily because of the catastrophes in which German psychiatry was implicated and to which it contributed actively during the Nazi era that followed. Furthermore, his project to establish mental illness in the form of discrete natural kinds has failed in the light of scientific progress. Psychiatry must embrace the complexity of mental illness and engage more deeply with the inherently fuzzy realms of language, culture, technological change and political power. This shift should bear more strongly on psychiatry's curriculum, research priorities, continuing professional development, practice, ethics and public engagement.

ABSTRACT Pre-service teacher practicums constitute critical developmental contexts for professional skill application and ethical reasoning development. This systematic literature review examines the ethical dilemmas encountered by pre-service teachers during practicum experiences, with particular focus on understanding why these dilemmas are uniquely challenging for novice educators. Following PRISMA guidelines, 14 publications (2012–2022) from peer-reviewed, English-language journals were systematically analysed through Rest’s four-component model of moral development. The analysis reveals that ethical dilemmas primarily stem from tensions between personal ethical frameworks and professional expectations, rather than from insufficient knowledge of professional codes. Three primary manifestations emerged: theory-practice disconnections reflecting value conflicts, supervising teacher expectations conflicting with personal beliefs, and institutional culture misalignments. These tensions implicate all four components of Rest’s model, namely moral sensitivity, judgement, motivation, and character, particularly when personal values conflict with institutional demands. The study advances understanding of why ethical challenges contribute to early-career teacher attrition by demonstrating how unresolved personal-professional ethical tensions generate moral distress. Teacher education programmes must explicitly address personal-professional ethical integration rather than treating professional ethics as separable from personal values, with direct implications for targeted interventions strengthening teacher retention outcomes.

ABSTRACT Accounting ethics education increasingly emphasises authentic experiential learning that enables students to engage with ethical issues in realistic professional contexts. While simulations and internships are widely used, short-term, high-intensity experiences that expose students to legal accountability remain underexplored. This study examines accounting students’ affective, cognitive, and behavioural reflections after attending a court hearing involving an accounting-related fraud case. Drawing on Kolb’s experiential learning cycle and Wilson and Beard’s stimulus-based reflection model, we analyse affective, cognitive, and behavioural reflections captured through an immediate open-ended survey of 95 students at a Chinese university. The findings show a coherent experiential learning process: students reported strong affective responses, followed by cognitive re-framing of professional responsibility, internal controls, and ethics education, and culminating in behavioural intentions to resist unethical pressure and seek support. The study provides evidence that court hearings can be a feasible experiential learning intervention that integrates technical accounting knowledge with ethical judgement and broadens pedagogical approaches in accounting ethics education.

ABSTRACT Systemic therapy has long emphasized relational context, power, and the ethical implications of therapeutic stance. This conceptual article reexamines systemic commitments to neutrality and reflexivity in light of contemporary wellness discourses that operate as regulatory systems within broader sociocultural contexts. Drawing on second-order cybernetics and systemic, community, and ethical scholarship, the paper conceptualizes individualized wellness discourse as a recursive regulatory system shaped by cultural norms, institutional incentives, and market forces that influence therapeutic neutrality and case formulation. The analysis engages longstanding debates within family therapy regarding neutrality, power, and social responsibility. The article distinguishes resilience, often framed as individual adaptation, from resistance, understood as relational and collective processes that challenge structural conditions contributing to distress. The paper further translates these concepts into clinical practice through case illustration, therapist dialogue, and multilevel systemic interventions grounded in Integrative Systemic Therapy (IST) and the Web of Human Experience. This paper highlights the importance of integrating structural analysis into clinical reasoning while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries. By clarifying the concept of systemic responsibility, this article contributes to ongoing conversations within family therapy regarding the relationship between therapeutic stance, social context, and professional ethics.

ABSTRACT This article examines the growing disjunction between legal permissibility and ethical responsibility in contemporary legal practice, arguing that compliance-oriented frameworks and defensive role morality are insufficient to address the systemic harms that can arise through lawful professional activity. Drawing on recent philosophical and empirical scholarship, the article explores how professional norms shape lawyers’ ethical self-understanding under institutional, economic and regulatory pressures. Particular attention is paid to areas such as environmental law, economic abuse advice, state capture and digital platforms, where ethical concerns frequently emerge from routine, rule-compliant practice rather than misconduct. Against this backdrop, the article advances a reconceptualisation of professional responsibility that treats ethics as an ongoing practice of reflective judgement rather than merely compliance with professional rules. It argues that lawyers should be understood as both technical experts and moral agents within a public profession, whose responsibilities extend beyond client service to maintaining public trust and the integrity of legal institutions. Situating this argument within contemporary debates on role morality, liberal legal ethics and virtue ethics, the article concludes by considering implications for legal ethics education in the SQE era and identifies directions for future empirical and normative research on ethical agency and structural harm.

AimThis study aimed to explore the experiences of nurses and nurse managers when using the Unforeseen Situations of Staffing and Qualifications action Model (USSQM) and to describe their views on the further development needs of the USSQM.MethodsA descriptive qualitative study was employed. Nineteen (n = 19) nurses and nurse managers from one department of a University Hospital in Finland were selected for semistructured focus‐group interviews by purposive sampling. Data were collected from January to October 2025; the interview guide focused on participant’s experiences of the use of USSQM. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis.ResultsThe analysis of the results revealed six themes: (1) Integration of the USSQM into clinical routine, (2) Providing decision‐making support and practice clarity, (3) Strengthening the fundamentals of the USSQM, (4) Safeguarding nurse well‐being and ethics, (5) Fostering communication and cooperation, (6) Utilization of digital solutions. Nurses and nurse managers described that USSQM was mainly used to assess workload status and manage patient flow. Participants described experiencing a tension between their strong professional ethics and the fundamental objectives of the USSQM. Consequently, they expressed that it was challenging to follow the reorganization and prioritization guidelines dictated by the model.ConclusionsThe participants described the USSQM as a practical and usable action model for daily practice. However, future refinement of the USSQM must focus on integrating objective workload indicators to reduce subjectivity and utilizing digital solutions for automated data retrieval. Additionally, adequate information and support from organizational leadership should be ensured during the implementation process to facilitate the comprehensive use of the USSQM.Implications for Nursing ManagementNurse managers especially experienced that USSQM gave them support in decision‐making; therefore, nurse managers play an essential role in ensuring the implementation of the USSQM in the units. They serve as role models and support nurses in decision‐making when tasks need to be reorganized or prioritized during periods of high workload.

Adolescents face significant barriers in accessing reproductive health services due to fears of privacy breaches and social stigma. In primary healthcare facilities, healthcare professionals are often trapped in a dilemma between the obligation to maintain medical confidentiality based on professional ethics and national regulatory demands requiring parental involvement for underage patients. This study aims to analyze the practice of protecting adolescent patient data privacy at Mardi Saras Primary Clinic and identify the gap between practical implementation and the norms of medical ethics and applicable legal regulations. This study employs a socio-legal research method with a qualitative approach. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with doctors and nurses, observation of service procedures, and study of the clinic's Standard Operating Procedures. The results indicate that although Mardi Saras Primary Clinic has implemented basic confidentiality protocols such as closed consultation rooms, there are substantial weaknesses in informed consent management, which still heavily relies on parental presence for all adolescent cases. This practice is driven by healthcare professionals' fear of legal risks, thereby ignoring the principle of developing autonomy in adolescents. These findings indicate a disparity between rigid administrative compliance and the spirit of protecting adolescent health rights within national regulations. The implication of this study underscores the urgency of developing specific SOPs that are sensitive to adolescent rights, as well as the need for continuous training for healthcare professionals regarding the legal and ethical boundaries of maintaining confidentiality for underage patients without compromising legal safety aspects.

Community-based medical education and research services (COBMERS) place medical students in primary health care facilities to strengthen their skills in community health service delivery, teamwork, leadership and professional ethics within limited-resource settings. Beyond training, COBMERS enables universities to generate evidence on local disease epidemiology, transmission dynamics, and control practices, resulting in a tangible, contextualized impact on the communities. There is however limited data on disease profile in Teso subregion, with limited epidemiological research in the area. This prospective study aims to profile the disease burden in the Teso subregion through COBMERS, thereby informing community-level interventions and health policy. The study will employ convergent parallel mixed-methods design, integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches. Quantitative components will include cross-sectional surveys to determine prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), and infectious diseases, complemented by prospective cohort studies to assess temporal trends. Qualitative data will be gathered through focus group discussions and key informant interviews to explore community perceptions, health system capacity, and effectiveness of preventive measures. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach will guide all phases, ensuring that research is co-designed with community members, health practitioners, and local authorities. Medical students, under the supervision of faculty and site mentors, will serve as primary data collectors, integrating research with their COBMERS training. The study is expected to provide evidence on the prevalence, trends, and risk factors of major diseases in the Teso subregion, alongside community perspectives on health priorities and barriers to care. Findings will stir up debates to inform tailored interventions, strengthen primary health care, and guide policy formulation. Additionally, embedding research within COBMERS is expected to build local research capacity among site mentors and students, fostering sustainability and continued community-university collaboration. This protocol therefore provides an integrated framework that combines epidemiological surveillance, community engagement, and capacity building. By leveraging COBMERS and CBPR, the study seeks to provide actionable evidence to reduce the burden of NCDs, infectious diseases, and NTDs while promoting health system resilience in Eastern Uganda.

COVID-19 intensified ethical tensions between clinicians' duty to care and self-protection amid PPE shortages. We explored frontline healthcare professionals' perspectives in Maputo, Mozambique. Semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals at four hospitals (April-June 2022) were recorded in Portuguese, transcribed, and thematically analyzed. Fixed-response items were captured in REDCap and summarized descriptively. Fifty-three respondents described varied perspectives on duty. Nearly half affirmed unconditional obligations grounded in professional ethics. Many framed duty as contingent on available PPE and institutional support; 8% were unsure. Themes included irregular PPE distribution, unequal training, and reliance on informal information, shaping perceived risk, preparedness, and responsibility. Quantitative summaries echoed these patterns: only 58% reported receiving training, and as PPE re-supply declined many felt exposed. Sustaining duty to care in resource-constrained settings during an outbreak requires reliable PPE provision, equitable and timely training, and trustworthy communication systems to protect workers and strengthen health-system resilience. Sustaining duty to care in resource-constrained settings during an outbreak requires reliable PPE provision, equitable and timely training, and trustworthy communication systems to protect workers and strengthen health-system resilience.

As a core course in preventive medicine, epidemiology contains abundant resources for ideological and political education. However, current teaching practices still face challenges such as fragmented exploration of ideological and political elements and awkward integration methods. Grounded in the fundamental mission of moral education and talent cultivation, this study focused on the distinctive characteristics of epidemiology and developed the "One Core, Two Integrations" teaching model for ideological and political education for preventive medicine students. This model crystallized the distinctive core educational philosophy: "Tracing Etiologies, Pursuing Truth; Safeguarding Health, Being Pioneers". It promoted the deep integration of professional knowledge instruction with scientific worldviews and methodologies, as well as of professional case analysis with professional ethics and social responsibility. Complementary efforts included five systematic teaching resource developments: syllabus optimization, case database construction, online course development, expanded resource integration, and standardized lesson plan compilation. A three-stage teaching implementation process-"pre-class guidance, in-class deepening, and post-class extension"-was established and put into practice. The research culminated in a systematic, actionable teaching framework for integrating ideological and political education into epidemiology courses. Its practical application has effectively promoted the coordinated development of students' professional competencies and ethical standards, thus achieving a mutually reinforcing relationship between curriculum development and disciplinary advancement. This framework provides a referenceable model for deepening the integration of ideological education with specialized instruction in epidemiology and related medical disciplines. It holds significant practical value for strengthening the value orientation in public health talent cultivation and advancing the implementation of the Healthy China strategy.

Cultural Virtues and Health Workers' Attitudes Toward Organ Donation: A Correlational Study.

Live broadcasting of court hearings positions journalism within a negotiated space among open justice commitments, media logic, and professional ethics. This study explores how such negotiation unfolds in the daily practice of a national television news outlet’s live trial coverage. Using a qualitative descriptive case study, we gathered data through semi-structured interviews with five key informants (producer, assignment editor, programme director, field reporter, and camera operator), limited control room observation during live transmission, and document review of regulatory texts including Indonesia’s Broadcasting Behavior Guidelines and Programme Standards (P3SPS), the Journalistic Code of Ethics, and Supreme Court Regulation No. 5/2020. The result show (1) tensions between open justice and courtroom restrictions, mitigated through selective permissions, transmission delays, and self-censorship; (2) the dominance of media logic such as ratings, speed, and visuals balanced through curated imagery and avoidance of speculative commentary; (3) ethics and regulation compliance via internal newsroom procedures; and (4) public legal-education strategies through expert commentary and procedural framing. We synthesize “Journalistic Practice in Live Trials,” which conceptualizes courtroom broadcasting as a negotiated intersection of open justice, media logic, and professional ethics, carrying implications for governance and professional practice in court reporting.

This study evaluated the emotional intelligence and clinical proficiency of staff nurses at Sulu Sanitarium and General Hospital employing a descriptive-correlational research methodology. A purposive sampling method was utilized to select 100 nurse participants. The data analysis employed frequency, percentage, weighted mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's r. The findings indicated that the majority of participants were aged 31 to 40, were female, possessed 1 to 5 years of service, and were primarily job order employees. The assessment of emotional intelligence, encompassing self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation, and social skills, alongside clinical proficiency in areas such as clinical care and decision-making, leadership and collaboration, and professional development and ethics, received high ratings and was consistently regarded as ‘Strongly Agree.’ The results revealed no significant variations in emotional intelligence and clinical competence when assessed by age, gender, length of service, and employment status. A moderately favorable significant connection was identified between emotional intelligence and clinical competence. The findings suggest that heightened emotional intelligence correlates with enhanced clinical competence in nurses, underscoring its significance in improving nursing performance and ensuring the provision of quality healthcare services.

BackgroundMoral disengagement is a psychological mechanism through which individuals justify ethically compromised behavior. Understanding the experiences of nursing faculty involved in moral disengagement is essential for maintaining educational integrity and ensuring the development of ethically grounded future nurses.ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of nursing faculty regarding moral disengagement and to examine how nursing faculty experienced moral disengagement as a cognitive strategy used to rationalize compromises in both academic and clinical teaching standards.MethodsA hermeneutic phenomenological approach, guided by van Manen’s method, was employed. Twelve (n=12) nursing faculty members from three Palestinian universities located in the West Bank participated in semi-structured interviews conducted between February and June 2025. Participants were selected through purposive sampling based on inclusion criteria of full-time employment and a minimum of two years of teaching experience. Data were analyzed using van Manen’s thematic analysis. Credibility was established through member checking, peer debriefing, and triangulation among researchers.ResultsThe thematic analysis identified four overarching themes: (1) subjective weighing of educational responsibilities, (2) justification mechanisms, (3) the gap between public presentation and private practice, and (4) the ‘contagion’ of moral disengagement in academic settings.ConclusionsThese findings highlight the complexity of moral disengagement among nursing educators within the specific context studied and the potential impact it had on nursing education quality and student development. The study calls for institutional reforms, including ethical workload audits, holistic faculty evaluation systems, and faculty ethics support programs, as well as context-sensitive professional ethics training and multilevel policy interventions in nursing education. Further research across diverse contexts is warranted to enhance transferability of these findings.

Assessing the professional ethics of midwifery educators is crucial for ensuring high-quality education and patient care. However, a comprehensive and validated instrument specific to this context is lacking, despite the unique ethical demands of their dual role in academia and clinical practice. To develop and psychometrically validate a comprehensive, context-specific instrument to assess professional ethics among midwifery educators. A sequential mixed-methods design. A sequential mixed-methods study was conducted across midwifery education settings in three phases. Item generation involved a literature synthesis and consultations with five midwifery faculty members, yielding an initial pool of 67 items. Content validity was assessed by panels of midwifery experts and students (n = 20) using the Content Validity Ratio (CVR), with a critical value of ≥ 0.62 for item retention; this process resulted in the removal of 10 items, leaving 57 items for psychometric testing. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed with 200 students, leading to the removal of 2 items and the identification of a six-domain structure. Following reliability analysis, an additional 3 items were omitted. The final 52-item instrument demonstrates strong internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.94) and excellent test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.97), and requires 10-15min to complete. A total of 225 participants were included across the phases (response rate: 100%). The qualitative phase identified four core categories and twelve sub-categories. Following content validation, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the 57-item version led to the removal of 2 items and supported a robust six-factor structure. The final instrument comprises 52 items. The scale demonstrated excellent sampling adequacy (KMO = 0.978), strong internal consistency (α = 0.94), and high test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.97). This study provides apreliminary52-item instrument with stronginitialpsychometric properties for assessing professional ethics in midwifery educators. It serves as a sound tool for evaluation and faculty development, aiming to enhance ethical competencies.Further studies are needed to establish other psychometric properties, such as discriminant and cross-cultural validity.

BackgroundDiagnosis-Related Groups (DRGs) have reshaped German hospital financing by linking reimbursement to case-based payment. While intended to increase efficiency, DRG-based reimbursement has been associated with concerns regarding professional autonomy, patient-centeredness, and organizational ethics. This study examines how physicians and hospital managerial stakeholders perceive the DRG system, focusing on professional identity, patient care, and moral conflict.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional online survey among hospital physicians and managerial stakeholders in two German federal states (North Rhine–Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt). The questionnaire assessed perceived economic pressure, ethical conflict, and quality-of-care implications under DRG conditions. Descriptive comparisons and multivariable logistic regression were used to estimate associations between professional role and reported ethical concerns.ResultsPhysicians more frequently reported perceived moral conflict (82% vs. 34%), reduced patient-centeredness (76% vs. 39%), and time pressure associated with DRG-linked hospital financing (85% vs. 71%) than managerial respondents. Managerial stakeholders more frequently emphasized efficiency and coordination gains. Both groups supported the use of quality indicators to protect care standards, though physicians were more likely to call for rebalancing financial and clinical priorities.ConclusionsPhysicians and managerial stakeholders perceive DRG-linked incentives differently, and both groups identify ethical pressure points in current hospital financing. The findings suggest that hospital financing reforms should consider not only efficiency incentives but also their perceived interaction with professional ethics, continuity of care, and organizational culture.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12910-026-01498-0.

Background/Objectives: Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being integrated into dental diagnostics, promising improved detection, efficiency, and patient communication. While these developments offer potential clinical benefits, emerging commercial applications raise important ethical concerns. This study explores how providers of diagnostic AI systems frame their technologies in marketing materials, with particular attention to features designed to influence patient acceptance and increase revenue. Methods: An exploratory qualitative thematic analysis was conducted on publicly available promotional content from leading dental AI companies between September and October 2025. Materials were analyzed for recurring rhetorical strategies related to commercialization, persuasion, technological authority, and representations of objectivity. Ethical interpretation was guided by principlism, professional ethics, and virtue-based perspectives. Results: The findings show that AI is frequently marketed not only as a diagnostic aid but also as a tool for boosting case acceptance, return on investment, and practice expansion. Visualizations and performance metrics are used rhetorically to position AI as authoritative and objective, encouraging patient compliance while downplaying uncertainty and potential harm. These practices risk undermining patient autonomy, promoting diagnostic inflation and overtreatment, and compromising professional integrity by shifting attention from patient welfare toward commercial outcomes. Conclusion: Pervasive marketing of diagnostic AI amplifies existing tensions between professional integrity and commercial incentives in dentistry. Without appropriate safeguards, AI risks reinforcing a transactional model of care in which patients are treated as consumers and diagnostics become instruments of persuasion. To preserve trust and ethical practice, dentists and professional organizations must ensure that AI remains a supportive clinical tool rather than a commercial device, prioritizing transparency, informed consent, and patient-centered care.

As dietitians actively engage in sectors beyond healthcare, practitioners are expected to uphold ethical standards that reflect both individual conduct and the profession's social identity. The growing influence of digital technologies, sustainability challenges, and interdisciplinary collaboration further underscores the need to understand current standards of ethical practice. However, global dialog on dietetic ethics remains limited and fragmented. To analyze how professional ethics are governed and enforced, and how ethical content domains are structured and expressed in dietetic codes worldwide. A qualitative document analysis was conducted on national or regional codes of ethics and conduct from 25 dietetic associations spanning North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Africa. Documents were obtained from public repositories or through direct association outreach. Codes written in English or Chinese were analyzed directly; others were translated using artificial intelligence (AI) and verified by issuing organizations. Using a reflexive content analysis approach, we examined revision history, government and enforcement, and ethical content domains. Enactment of ethical guidelines ranged from 1982 to 2024, and only five documents reported revision practices, with update cycles varying from scheduled to ad hoc. Regional variation was observed across three dimensions of ethical guidelines: intended audience scope, aspirational enforcement approaches, and references to legal compliance in relation to local laws or legislation. All documents referenced bioethical principles, but only eight incorporated environmental ethics; ethical guidance addressed professional interactions outside patient-practitioner relationships. Conflicts of interest in these contexts included non-financial domains (e.g., media engagement), with advertising and marketing explicitly discussed in several recently updated guidelines. Findings highlight key opportunities to strengthen ethical guidance in dietetics, particularly in relation to environmental ethics, collaborative practice contexts, and conflicts of interest in digital settings.

Artificial intelligence between legal governance and professional ethics: A comparative study