Center for Clinical Bioethics

Joan Engebretson, Dr. PH, AHN-BC, RN

Section: Visiting Scholar Program

Joan Engebretson is a Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston. She will be a visiting scholar at the Center for Clinical Bioethics periodically during the 2007 Academic Year.

Research topic:  Comparison of philosophical premises of complementary alternative medical oaths and their relativee ethical value.

Summary:

There is a contemporary movement toward integrating complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practices into healthcare. The divergent philosophical orientations between CAM and mainstream biomedicine confound this effort. The underlying philosopical orientations, which influence ethics, are reflected in the practical and moral pedagogy of these healing approaches and their applications. The diversity in ethical norms and values may be manifested not only between CAM and mainstream biomedicine but also among complementary disciplines. Ethics are codfied in participatory oaths of investiture which are a means of conjoining new practitioners to the ethic of the field. These oaths also serve as metaphors for values intrinsic to the art and skill of practice. My study will examine the philosophical basis and ethical underpinnings inherent to different oaths (both CAM and mainstream medicine). Specifically, I will study the overall value and meaning of an oath to the initiation and investiture to health care practice. Based upon this, I will examine how various professional health care oaths define and/or adhere to a philosophical foundation for practice. I will address how different oaths establish and/or define values and ethical obligations inherent to the particular practices of providing health care. Lastly, I intend to develop a template for an oath that could be broadly applicable to integrate complementary and mainstream practices through an ethic that is build upon common philosophical grounds.