Values, Ethics and Health Care

‘This book encourages readers to reflect on the nature and values of health care practice through its challenging but accessible style. It will be a stimulating and thought-provoking read for anyone involved in day-to-day health care’ - Professor Jane Wills, London South Bank University. ‘This book offers frameworks and guidance that all health care workers will find stimulating and challenging and that all of them will benefit by considering’ - Professor Linda Jones, Open University. Why is thinking about values and ethics a crucial component of health care training and practice? How can we go about engaging in such thinking? Values, Ethics and Health Care responds to these essential questions. It examines key ethical frameworks and debates within the field of health care, locating them firmly in their social and occupational contexts. Guiding students through a range of dilemmas and difficulties encountered in health care practice with case studies and real-life examples, this lively text illustrates how to apply knowledge to professional practice and decision-making. This book: offers a critical and reflective understanding of health care ethics and values; presents an inter professional approach; relates theory to ‘everyday’ ethics; and, includes student-friendly features such as real-life examples, ‘thinking about’ points and links to further reading. The book will be essential reading for undergraduates taking modules in Values, Ethics and Professional Practice as part of health studies degree programs. It will also be useful for postgraduates as well as practitioners in the field.