Day 6 - Melbourne - call to action and the aims of applied ethics

I recall someone saying that the definition of a lecture is when the notes of the lecturer are transferred to the notepad of the listener without entering the minds of either....

This morning's ICN plenary lecture by Lesley Mancuso - 'Holding up More than Half the Sky' - was a long way from this definition. Her delivery was compelling in both style and content and she referred to no notes. Her focus was women's health and the importance of nurses' roles.

We were immediately drawn in by the statement 'one woman dies every 2 minutes due to pregnancy related illness'. We were inspired by a citation from Gandhi presented at the beginning and end of the talk:  'be the change you want to see in the world'. We were called to action by encouragement to 'raise up women around the world', to innovate and to stand up for oneself as a nurse which includes negotiating 'your value'. The audience was clearly appreciative of her message and absorbed by her passion and ability to speak to nurses in practice. She engaged as much with hearts as minds.

However good the presentations have been in  the equity/ethics/human rights strand of the conference, they seem unlikely to rouse participants to action. Those I attended today are likely to raise ethical awareness of the ethics and experiences of patients and nurses in relation to issues such as end stage kidney disease, palliative sedation and nurses involvement in end of life decision-making.

We (Cristina Paganini and I) presented on the latter topic drawing on findings from a four country study (Brazil, Germany, UK and Ireland). We could not claim that we delivered a call to action as did Professor Mancuso, however, it was gratifying to have colleagues from different countries say that our findings resonated with their experience. In our session, there was also a good example of an innovation in multi-professional ethics education from the University of Texas. They have developed 'An interactive adventure in ethics for the health professions' .

Should we though be content with more modest aims in applied ethics?  To raise awareness of the ethical dimensions of practice? To enable colleagues to interrogate and articulate ethical concepts and arguments? To help them understand the impact of individual, organisational and political factors on ethical and unethical practice? To analyse the ethical aspects of research data?  and to learn from each other regarding innovations in ethics education?

Should we  indeed aim to do more? To inspire colleagues to act ethically? To be good people who consistently do the right thing? In personal and professional life?.... Is this possible? or Desirable?

I would welcome your thoughts so please do respond...