In this paper Gadow's philosophical themes are developed considering the pedagogical relation – the relation of teacher and student, nurse and patient, self and world. Relational pedagogy is discussed through exploration of embodiment (being the teaching), improvisation (doing the teaching), and interdependence (locating the teaching in a reciprocal world as home). The pedagogical relation explores the lived space between teacher and learner, nurse and patient, where new knowledge is constructed. Such knowledge ‘resounds bodily’ and is always under construction.

Knowledge needed for ethical care must be constructed in the relationship between professional and patient who strive together to understand what meaning the disease factors have within the experience of the individual patient. Three kinds of knowledge are described. The first two, descriptive knowledge and abstract knowledge, are part of the more comprehensive and complex inherent knowledge. The reality of human experience and meaning is profoundly more complex than the scientific approach of fragmentation for purposes of dissection and diagnosis. In (...) order to develop descriptive, abstract and inherent knowledge as outlined here, three moves need to be made: the move from dominance to collaboration, the move from abstraction to context, and the move from beneficence to nurturance. (shrink)

Genetic counseling is viewed as a therapeutic interrelationship between genetic counselors and their clients. In a previous relational ethics research project, various themes were identified as key components of relational ethics practice grounded in everyday health situations. In this article the relational ethics approach is further explored in the context of genetic counseling to enhance our understanding of how the counselor-client relationship is contextually developed and maintained. Qualitative interviews were conducted with six adult clients undergoing genetic counseling for predictive testing. (...) Engagement, dialogue and presence were revealed as relevant to genetic counselor-client relationships. A relational ethics approach in genetic counseling challenges the concept of nondirectiveness and may enhance the outcome of counseling for both counselor and client. (shrink)

Unable to answer the call of our patients: mental health nurses’ experience of moral distress When health practitioners’ moral choices and actions are thwarted by constraints, they may respond with feelings of moral distress. In a Canadian hermeneutic phenomenological study, physicians, nurses, psychologists and non‐professional aides were asked to identify care situations that they found morally distressing, and to elaborate on how moral concerns regarding the care of patients were raised and resolved. In this paper, we describe the experience of (...) moral distress related by nurses working in mental healthcare settings who believed that lack of resources (such as time and staff) leads to dispiritedness, lack of respect, and absence of recognition (for both patients and staff) which severely diminished their ability to provide quality care. The metaphors of flashlight and hammer are used to elaborate nurses’ possible responses to intolerable situations. (shrink)

There are many ethical issues arising for practitioners in what are termed the boundaries of professional helping relationships. In this article, the authors argue that the boundary metaphor is not sufficient for conceptualizing these ethical issues and propose that alternative metaphors be considered. The use of a different metaphor might allow practitioners to re-vision the relationship issues in a more realistic, richer, and holistic way. Those explored here include highway, bridge, and territory. For the authors, it is territory that seems (...) to hold the greatest promise. (shrink)