Working Ethics

Welcome

Richard — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:45:33 +0000

Welcome to Working Ethics – and greetings to those who have been here before. We get several visits a day and we welcome comments. So if you are interested in following up ideas raised here do get in touch.

This site is for people interested in ethics in the professions and public life. It aims to help you develop a practical working ethic. The site is managed by me, Richard Rowson. To know more about the site or me, please click on the right.

Please get in touch if you are interested in any of the issues, activities and organisations mentioned below. There are networks of people interested in these topics and I can put you in touch with them if you would like that.

How to contact me:

I’m at richardhrowson and the rest of the address is @aol.com – sorry to put it that way, but I’m trying to avoid spam. Don’t forget to put the “h” between “richard” and “rowson”.

Thank you for visiting the site.

Taking the FAIR framework into Europe

Richard — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:40:05 +0000

In November 2009 I presented a paper on ethical aspects of using older people in medical research at the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice. Basically I was showing how the FAIR framework (developed in Working Ethics – how to be fair in a culturally complex world ) is able to highlight ethically significant aspects of this area of research and provide a useful analytic tool when issues are open to debate. The Forum is concerned with relating ethical practice to developments in medical science. For more information go to www.efgcp.be

Research seeking shared values between major religious and secular traditions

Richard — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:27:39 +0000

At Kingston University I am developing a new research project on shared values. The ideas is to see how far the FAIR ethics framework (see Working Ethics) is an appropriate ethical basis for community leaders and people working in the public space.

Since this framework is successful in helping members of different professions work together it might help people working across cultural divides and in culturally complex situations.

We are currently in discussion with various organisation on how best to organise this research and will keep you posted on its progress.

New courses and new research ideas at Kingston University

Richard — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:28:53 +0000

Things have moved on since the paragraph below about activities at Kingston University.

Two new courses have been approved to begin in September 2009. They are a Foundation Degree and an MA in Child-Centred Interprofessional Practice. By “child” is meant anyone from birth to 19years, so these courses are for people who work in a profession or in a voluntary capacity with babies, children or young people. The courses are designed to help pratitioners, strategic managers and volunteers at all levels understand each others’ work and collaborate effectively, whether as individuals or as members of interprofessional teams. Attendance for the courses is over twelve or so weekends a year, so you can take the courses while working full-time. If you would like to know more go to www.kingston.ac.uk/education

We are also developing research ideas to complement the courses. One idea currently being explored is the possibility of discussing with young people from different cultural and religious traditions the values of the FAIR framework outlined in my book Working Ethics – how to be fair in a culturally complex world. For details about the book click on About this website.

AREC – the Association of Research Ethics Committees

Richard — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:27:41 +0000

AREC is a busy organisation which represents Research Ethics Committees in Universities, NHS and the independent sector. It holds conferences, seminars and informal forums several times during the year. For more details click on The Association of Research Ethics Committees.

On the afternoon of 13th March – before AREC’s conference on the 14th in Birmingham - there was a seminar entitled Learning from each other – the international experience. I conducted the opening session on An international basis for research ethics - a short paper followed by discussion. For further developments on this issue, see below.

Kingston University’s new developments for professionals working with 0-19 year olds

Richard — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:20:17 +0000

Kingston University is at the forefront in developing new courses and resources for professionals working with 0-19 year olds. The University is currently setting up an Institute for Child-centred Inteprofessional Practice (ICCIP) which will be a centre and academic base for professionals in early years, social work, youth justice, nursing and the police.

I am contributing to the ethical aspects of ICCIP’s development - for example, by taking part in seminars with professionals working with children from birth to 5 years as part of Kingston’s BA Hons Education and Childcare: for details contact www.kingston.ac.uk/education.

Students work in a range of settings with babies and children with different conditions and from varied background. Consequently they encounter vastly different problems. We look at scenarios arising in early years work and consider how the ethical framework set out in Working Ethics might suggest ways of dealing with them. Some points to emerge were:

- the importance of early years professionals being mindful and protective of the objectives of their work

- the value of making these objectives clear to parents so they can make informed decisions about the welfare of their children

- the need to protect the integrity of the role of early years professionals

- that it is ethically important to respect the autonomy of early years professionals as well as that of parents and other stakeholders: fairness requires respect for the informed views of everyone!

It was agreed that these points can help professionals arbitrate between conflicting demands and also help them decide when they should say no to some requests!

If you wish to pick up on any issues raised in this posting, please send your comments and queries to this site. It can become a forum for ongoing discussion. Please say whether you would like your communication made public.

Nursing conference at Yale, July 2008

Richard — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:41:24 +0000

A conference of the International Centre for Nursing Ethics at Surrey Univerity was held at Yale on 17th/18th July . I gave two papers. In A fundamental ethical responsibility of leaders and professional bodies I suggested that authorities in nursing should set out what they see as the fundamental values in nursing since, given the global nature of nursing and the cultural complexity in which much nursing is carried out, nurses are sometimes confused as to the basic ethical stance of the profession. In Thus far and no further I discussed the extent to which nursing can accommodate in its practice the demands of different cultural perspective. Both papers started animated and questioning discussion – as a result of which I shal be modifying the papers before submitting them for publication.

The conference was sponsored by Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioethics and the Yale Center for International Nursing Scholarship and Education.

International Ethical Basis for Research Ethics

Richard — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:27:03 +0000

In a paper at the international conference of the Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) and the International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) at Liverpool in June I put forward suggestions for an international basis for research ethics, having first talked about the issue at a conference in March (see below). There was a lively discussion on the problems of running international research projects in the absence of an agreed ethical basis, and since then several delegates have been in touch. Several people are hoping to find a forum for promoting the idea, so if you are interested in joining us, or have any ideas, please get in touch.

Professionals’ problems with human rights

Richard — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 19:50:30 +0000

Two of my recent articles are about the problems which some professionals experience with human rights as a moral and legal concept. One appeared in Public (the journal produced by Guardian Newpapers) in December 2006, p42, entitled There are no absolute rights and the other in Nursing Ethics (the international journal for health care professionals) volume 14, number 6, 2007, p 838, entitled Nurses’ difficulties with rights

Racism and Corporate Social Responsibility

Richard — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 13:42:48 +0000

In 2007 I was in discussion with a government minister and a member of the conservative shadow cabinet (on separate occasions!) on how ideas in my book Working Ethics – how to be fair in a culturally complex world might be used in their work. I am currently thinking how the ideas may help combat racism and promote aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility.