Pandemic ethics
Rethinking rights, responsibilities and roles in social work
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10898210 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bank (0000-0002-2529-6413, Durham University, corresponding author), Nikki Rutter (0000-0001-7671-506X, Durham University) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 3460-3479 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The British Journal of Social Work (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0045-3102 • E-ISSN: 1468-263X |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/bjsw/bcab253 |
| OpenAlex | W4205446556 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 19 |
This article explores responses of 41 UK social workers to ethical challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, utilising UK data from an international qualitative survey and follow-up interviews in 2020. Challenges ranged from weighing individual rights/needs against public health risks, to deciding whether to follow government/agency rules and guidance. Drawing on a narrative methodology to explore ethical agency, four broad types of response are identified: ethical confusion; ethical distress; ethical creativity and ethical learning. The article considers conditions that promote ethical creativity and learning: time and slow ethics; teamwork and co-creating the future and professional judgement and ethics work. It examines cognitive and emotional efforts required to make professional judgements in new conditions, when existing practices and procedures are unavailable, showing how the concept of ‘ethics work’ assists in identifying the invisible labour behind judgements and decisions in challenging circumstances. Whilst some practitioners sought clearer guidance from above, others made tailored professional ethical judgements about what would be right under particular circumstances for particular people. This capacity underpins good professional practice, and has been highlighted during the pandemic. It is important that social work post-pandemic reclaims the role of professional ethical judgement, which has been undermined by decades of managerialism and procedure-driven practice
Agency (philosophy) · Creativity · Engineering ethics · Judgement · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Ethics in medical practice · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Work Education and Practice
Ethics as Epistemology
Charting a Path for Disaster-Informed Social Work
Dialogues on the Future of Social Work
Balancing in the pandemic
Cultivating Safe Spaces for Critical Reflection and Staff Care
Slow Ethics in an Age of Fast Technology
The materiality of home visits at the margins of community care before, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic
The Impact of Covid-19 on Social Care and Social Work in the UK
Learning Green Social Work in Global Disaster Contexts
Grounded Theory and Theoretical Coding
Digital social work
Narrative Ethics
Slow Ethics and the Art of Care
Social Work and Disasters
Ethics and Values in Social Work
Everyday ethics in professional life
The team as a secure base revisited
A green social work perspective on social work during the time of Covid‐19
Conducting Qualitative Data Analysis
Social Workers during Covid-19
Social Work Practice with Adults under the Rising Second Wave of Covid-19 in England
Introduction—When Social Work Meets Disaster
Reducing social worker burnout during Covid-19
Organisation and delivery of social services in extreme events
Practising ethically during Covid-19
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,25 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |