Ethics for Health Care encourages students to develop their skills in ethical reasoning, and shows techniques for dealing effectively with contemporary ethics issues faced by professionals in the everyday health care setting. The text illustrates the way in which ethics values underpin decision making in personal contexts. It then explores how the same standards and ideals can inform professional decision-making in all health care disciplines - from nursing and social work to community, allied and public health.

Using a ‘treatment sequence’ approach, blended with new 4th edition chapters addressing the phases of life, the text takes students through the process of training to work in health care, to meeting a patient, and contributing to that person’s care. It is clearly written and contains pedagogical aids throughout, which make the language and concepts of ethics easier to grasp.

NEW TO THIS EDITION

• Chapter 10 (from 3rd edition) has become Chapter 1. The new chapter 1 presents the ethical theories and how they will be covered throughout the chapters of the book.
• ‘From Theory to Practice’ boxes throughout the text
• New chapters blend ‘phases of life’ approach to ethics into the text:  ‘At the Beginning of Life’ is now an entire chapter (6) ‘When the Patient is Young’ is now an entire chapter (7) ‘Mid-Life and Health Care Challenges (New chapter) (8) ‘Declining Phases of Life and End of Life Challenges’ is now an entire chapter (9).

1. Ethics as a process of reflection
2. Caring as professionals
3. Caring as service provision
4. Enter the patient
5. The client and carer relationship
6. At the beginning of life
7. When the patient is young
8. Mid-life and health care challenges
9. Declining phases of life and end of life challenges
10. Caring in an institutional and social context
11. Monitoring and education
12. And so to research

Catherine Berglund brings an ethics and public interest perspective to the consideration of professional standards in health care and research practice, and she has taught health care ethics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for over twenty years.