Exploring the dynamics of personal, professional and interprofessional ethics

Professionals involved in person centred professions are working in increasingly complex and demanding environments. Many professional bodies have established codes of conduct and ethics for their members which by and large function to protect the public interest. These codes provide guiding principles of practice which are open to interpretation in their application. At times, professionals experience a disjuncture between personal, professional and interprofessional ethics.

The aim of this book is to spearhead debate about these disjunctures and ethical dilemmas in an informed manner. It goes beyond looking at professional ethics and focuses on the dynamics of the professionals' interaction with the ethical code of their profession and further interaction between this and others' professional ethics. This book uses research, theory and practice examples to understand the dynamics of personal, professional and interprofessional ethics within the context of several person centred professions. The multiple contexts are brought about by the range of professions, namely educational psychology, occupational psychology, education, social work (generic, criminal justice and child protection), policing, law, health care in hospitals (nursing and midwifery) and voluntary organisations (mental health, trauma and grief, cancer), occupational therapy, clinical psychiatry, palliative care in organisational and community settings, and community learning and development. Perspectives of these 40 authors from four continents, Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, provide further richness. The book is structured into six sections and comprises 20 chapters, with most chapters bringing diverse perspectives through teams of authors from different professional backgrounds or countries.