The process of moral distress development: A virtue ethics perspective

This theoretical paper proposes a new perspective to understand the moral distress of nurses more fully, using virtue ethics. Moral distress is a widely studied subject, especially with respect to the determination of its causes and manifestations. Increasing the theoretical depth of previous work using ethical theory, however, can create new possibilities for moral distress to be explored and analyzed. Drawing on more recent work in this field, we explicate the conceptual framework of the process of moral distress in nurses, proposed by Ramos et al., using MacIntyrean virtue ethics. Our analysis considers the experience of moral distress in the context of a practice, enabling the adaptation of this framework using virtue ethics. The adoption of virtue ethics as an ethical perspective broadens the understanding of the complexity of nurses’ experiences of moral distress, since it is impossible to create a ready model that can cover all possibilities. Specifically, we describe how identity, social context, beliefs, and tradition shape moral discomfort, uncertainty, and sensitivity and how virtues inform moral judgments. Individuals, such as nurses, who are involved in a practice have a narrative history and a purpose ( telos) that guide them in every step of the process, especially in moral judgment. It is worth emphasizing that the process described is supported by the formation of moral competence that, if blocked, can lead to moral distress and deprofessionalization. It is expected that nurses seek to achieve the internal good of their practice, which legitimizes their professional practice and supports them in moral decision-making, preventing moral distress.

Erratum: Golding et al. Examining the Effect of Context, Beliefs, and Values on UK Farm Veterinarians’ Antimicrobial Prescribing: A Randomized Experimental Vignette and Cross-Sectional Survey. Antibiotics 2021, 10, 445

The authors wish to make the following corrections to their published paper [...]

Examining the Effect of Context, Beliefs, and Values on UK Farm Veterinarians’ Antimicrobial Prescribing: A Randomized Experimental Vignette and Cross-Sectional Survey

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a pressing threat to public and animal health. There is evidence that antimicrobial prescribing and stewardship behaviors by veterinarians (vets) are influenced by non-clinical factors, such as psychological, social, and environmental factors. This study explored the role of context, beliefs, and values on vets’ antimicrobial prescribing decisions. UK-based practicing farm vets (n = 97) were recruited to an online study. Using an experimental vignette methodology, vets were randomly assigned across four conditions, to examine the effects of different contexts (pressure on farm economics, the farmer, or the vet-farmer relationship, compared to a control condition) on vets’ likelihood of prescribing antibiotics. Vets’ beliefs about different groups’ responsibility for causing and preventing AMR and vets’ values were also measured. Key findings were that context alone, values, and beliefs about groups’ responsibilities for causing AMR were not predictive of vets’ likelihood of prescribing antibiotics. However, vets’ beliefs about groups’ responsibilities for preventing AMR were predictive of an increased likelihood of prescribing antibiotics, when vets were exposed to the experimental condition of the vignette in which the vet–farmer relationship was under pressure. Farm vets also believed that different groups have different levels of responsibility for causing and preventing AMR. Results should be interpreted cautiously, given the smaller than planned for sample size, and the possibility for both false negatives and false positives. Further research is needed to explore how these findings could inform antimicrobial stewardship interventions in veterinary medicine.

Reimagining the South African social work curriculum: Aligning African and western cosmologies

Widespread student uprisings associated with the Fees-Must-Fall movement have starkly focused universities on the need to revisit the impact of colonialism, and the need to decolonise curricula and adapt them to the South African context. While acknowledging the oppressive effects of colonisation and the homogenising and universalising effects of globalisation, the main thrust of this paper is that we need to recognise that social work as a worldwide profession is part of the global village and that we need to keep current with international developments, while remembering our history, celebrating our unique multicultural context, beliefs and practices, and remaining anchored in Africa. This article discusses examples of indigenous world views that could infuse and inform the Western-based knowledge, skills and values components of the curriculum, and which are needed for effective provision of social work services.

New Insights into the Self-Regulation of Writing Skills in Secondary Vocational Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate predictors of metacognitive self-regulation for students in secondary vocational education. Drawing on research and theory characterizing writing as a complex skill, we analyzed students' reported metacognitive strategy use in relation to three writing genres: writing an email, term paper, and application letter. The participants were 967 vocational students enrolled in six education programs. Multiple regression analyses with metacognitive strategy use as criterion variable and as a predictor set: capacity beliefs, context beliefs, gender, and perceived instrumentality of writing for the attainment of personal goals, revealed that capacity and context beliefs significantly predicted metacognitive strategy use for the three genres but genre-specific effects were found for perceived instrumentality of writing for the attainment of personal goals. Metacognitive strategy use had no relation with career goals, a positive relation with mastery goals, and a negative relation with well-being goals. The results illustrate the complexity of predicting metacognitive strategy use and signal the importance of insight into students' personal goals.