Principles for pandemics: COVID-19 and professional ethical guidance in England and Wales.
BMC Med Ethics
; 22(1): 78, 2021 06 24.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1282254
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
During the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, various professional ethical guidance was issued to (and for) health and social care professionals in England and Wales. Guidance can help to inform and support such professionals and their patients, clients and service users, but a plethora of guidance risked information overload, confusion, and inconsistency.METHODS:
During the early months of the pandemic, we undertook a rapid review, asking what are the principles adopted by professional ethical guidance in England and Wales for dealing with COVID-19? We undertook thematic content analysis of the 29 documents that met our inclusion criteria.RESULTS:
The 29 documents captured 13 overlapping principles respect, fairness, minimising harm, reciprocity, proportionality, flexibility, working together, inclusiveness, communication, transparency, reasonableness, responsibility, and accountability.CONCLUSIONS:
We intend this attempt to collate and outline the prominent principles to be helpful, particularly, for healthcare practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and, hopefully, for future pandemic planning. We also offer some reflections on the guidance and the principles therein. After describing the principles, we reflect on some of the similarities and differences in the guidance, and the challenges associated not only with the specific guidance reviewed, but also with the nature and import of "professional ethical guidance".Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
/
Reviews
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Med Ethics
Journal subject:
Ethics
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12910-021-00643-1
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