Ethics

For the trauma practitioner of any professional orientation, to study ethics would be to study the knowledge or act of deciding what is good or evil. To have ethics means to have a certain moral stance for self-regulation. In a broader sense, ethics and ethical codes give guidance to practice. One's personal ethics, to be relevant and useful, must be responsive, clear, grounded in fact not fantasy, and guide practice. Ethics therefore means standards of behavior, grounded in values. Ethical principles set the ideal, the ideal for practice and beliefs, and as such, give a sense of community to those who adhere to them. Thus, ethical principles inform and guide conduct for practitioners, clients, patients, and society and establish the “rules” of practice that dictate ...