Imagined in Policy, Inscribed on Bodies: Defending an Ethic of Compassion in a Political Context; Comment on “Why and How Is Compassion Necessary to Provide Good Quality Healthcare?”

Document Type : Commentary

Author

School of Health Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

Abstract

In response to the International Journal of Health Policy and Management (IJHPM)editorial, this commentary adds to the debate about ethical dimensions of compassionate care in UK service provision. It acknowledges the importance of the original paper, and attempts to explore some of the issues that are raised in the context of nursing practice, research and education. It is argued that each of these fields of the profession are enacted in an escalating culture of corporatism, be that National Health Service (NHS) or university campus, and global neoliberalism. Post-structuralist ideas, notably those of Foucault, are borrowed to interrogate healthcare as discursive practice and disciplinary knowledge; where an understanding of the ways in which power and language operate is prominent. Historical and contemporary evidence of institutional and ideological degradation of sections of humanity, a ‘history of the present,’ serve as reminders of the import, and fragility, of ethical codes.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Fotaki M. Why and how is compassion necessary to provide good quality healthcare? Int J Health Policy Manag. 2015;4(4):199-201. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2015.66
  2. O’Farrell C. Michel Foucault. London: Sage; 2005.
  3. Cameron D. Working with Spoken Discourse. London: Sage; 2001.
  4. Fairclough N. Language and Power. 2nd ed. London: Longman; 2001.
  5. Wood LA, Kroger RO. doing Discourse Analysis: Methods for Studying Action in Talk and Text. London, Sage; 2000.
  6. Potter J, Wetherell M. Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. London: Sage; 1987.
  7. Delamothe T. NHS at 60: Founding principles. BMJ. 2008;336(7655):1216-1218. doi:10.1136/bmj.39582.501192.94
  8. Pollock AM, Price D. The final frontier: The UK’s new coalition government turns the English National Health Service over to the global health care market. Health Soc Rev. 2011;20(3):294-305. doi:10.5172/hesr.2011.20.3.294
  9. De Vogli R.  Neoliberal globalisation and health in a time of economic crisis. Soc Theory Health. 2011;9(4):311-325. doi:10.1057/sth.2011.16
  10. Player S, Pollock AM. Long-term care: From public responsibility to private good. Crit Soc Policy. 2001;21(2):231-255. doi:10.1177/026101830102100204
  11. Stuckler D, Basu S. The Body Economic: Eight Experiments in Economic Recovery, From Iceland to Greece. London: Penguin; 2014.
  12. Stuckler D. The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills. Presented as Eleanor Rathbone Public Lecture Series; 15 April, 2015; Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, School of Law and Social Justice.
  13. Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). The code: Professional Standards of Practice and Behaviour for Nurses and Midwives. London: NMC; 2015:4.
  14. Webber F. One nation: But whose? http://www.irr.org.uk/news/one-nation-but-whose/. Accessed May 22, 2015. Published May 20, 2015.
  15. McKie A. ‘The demolition of man’: Lessons from the holocaust literature for the teaching of nursing ethics. Nurs Ethics. 2004;11:138-149. doi:10.1191/0969733004ne679oa
  16. Benedict S, Caplan A, Lafrenz Page T. Duty and ‘euthanasia’: The nurses of Meseritz-Obrawalde. Nurs Ethics. 2007;14:781-794. doi:10.1177/0969733007082118
  17. Seeman MV. Psychiatry in the Nazi era. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 2005;50:208-224.
  18. Friedlander H. Registering the handicapped in Nazi Germany: a case study. Jewish History. 1997;11:89-98. doi:10.1007/bf02335679
  19. Michalsen  A, Reinhart K. ‘Euthanasia’: A confusing term, abused under the Nazi regime and misused in present end-of-life debate. Intensive Care Med. 2006;32(9):1304-1310. doi:10.1007/s00134-006-0256-9
  20. Garland D. What is a ‘history of the present’? On Foucault’s genealogies and their critical preconditions. Punishment and Society. 2014;16(4):365-384. doi:10.1177/1462474514541711
  21. McKeown M, Mercer D. Mental health care and resistance to fascism. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs. 2010;17:152-161. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2850.2009.01489.x
  22. Benedict S, Kuhla J. Nurses’ participation in the euthanasia programs of Nazi Germany. West J Nurs Res. 1999;21(2):246-263. doi:10.1177/01939459922043749
  23. Blom-Cooper L, Brown M, Dolan R, Murphy E. Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Complaints about Ashworth Hospital. London: HMSO; 1992.
  24. Fallon P, Bluglass R, Edwards B, Daniels G. Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Personality Disorder Unit, Ashworth Special Hospital. London: HMSO; 1999.
  25. Mercer D, Perkins E. Theorising sexual media and sexual violence in a forensic setting: Men’s talk about pornography and offending. Int J Law Psychiatry. 2014;37(2):174-182. doi:10.1016/j.ijlp.2013.11.003
  26. Mercer D. Girly mags and girly jobs: Pornography and gendered inequality in forensic practice. Int J Ment Health Nurs. 2013;22(1):15-23. doi:10.1111/j.1447-0349.2012.00837.x
  27. Georges JM. The politics of suffering: Implications for nursing science. Adv Nurs Sci. 2004;27:250-256. doi:10.1097/00012272-200410000-00002
  28. Ben-Sefer E. Lessons from the past for contemporary Australian nursing students: the Nazi Euthanasia program. Nurse Educ Pract. 2006;6:31-39. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2005.06.002
  29. Georges JM. An ethics of testimony: Prisoner nurses at Auschwitz. Adv Nurs Sci. 2006;29:161-169. doi:10.1097/00012272-200604000-00009
  30. Holmes D, Rudge T, Perron A, eds. (Re)Thinking Violence in Health Settings: A Critical Approach. Surrey: Ashgate; 2012.
  31. Holmes D, Jacob JD, Perron A, eds. Power and the Psychiatric Apparatus: Repression, Transformation and Assistance. Surrey: Ashgate; 2014.
  32. Jacob JD, Perron A, Holmes D. Introduction: unmasking the psychiatric apparatus. In: Holmes D, Jacob JD, Perron A, eds. Power and the Psychiatric Apparatus: Repression, Transformation and Assistance. Surrey: Ashgate; 2014:1.
  33. Foucault M. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books; 1977.
  34. Baillie L, Gallagher A. Respecting dignity in care in diverse care settings: strategies of UK nurses. Int J Nurs Pract. 2001;17(4):336-341. doi:10.1111/j.1440-172x.2011.01944.x
  35. Spandler H, Stickley T. No hope without compassion: The importance of compassion in recovery-focused mental health services. J Ment Health. 2011;20(6):555-566. doi:10.3109/09638237.2011.583949
  36. Baillie L, Ford P, Gallagher A, Wainright P. Nurses’ views on dignity in care. Nurs Older People. 2009;21(8):22-29.
  37. Department of Health (DOH). Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry (The Francis Report). London, Stationery Office; 2013.
  38. Flynn M, Mercer D. Is compassion possible in a market-led NHS? Nurs Times.  2013;109(7):12-14.

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 30 May 2015
  • Revise Date: 10 July 2015
  • Accept Date: 08 July 2015
  • First Publish Date: 01 October 2015

Share

How to cite

Statistics