Values, Ethics and Health Care

Abstract

Reviews the book, Values, Ethics and Health Care by D. Duncan (2010). This book is billed as something of a 'textbook' or guide to the topic aimed at undergraduate students in the healthcare and allied healthcare professions. This book is an interesting representation of some of these general trends in modern medical education. The book and its chapters are explicitly structured around reflection with regular 'question boxex' prompting readers to examine their own thoughts, feelings and practices. It successfully facilitates and prompts reflection in a number of relevant areas. It cannot, of course, circumvent the inherent uncertainty of what it might mean for a profession or professionals to adopt x, y or z as a central value for their practice. This latter point reveals perhaps the difficulty in making a textbook seemingly designed to prompt individual reflection. Values must be seen as social or cultural phenomena; an aspect of the medical field. The book is very much structured around what should, ideally, be group or classroom based discussions or exercises in reflection. It offers some interesting examples which might be appropriated as readings or discussion points by those seeking to refine or develop their courses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)