Ethical practice in paediatric speech-language pathology

Speech-language pathologists working with children and their families express a desire to more fully understand the ethical dimension of their practice. While codes of ethics and articles outlining ethical decision-making models are available, many of these sources do not necessarily reflect the day to day practice of the profession. This study explored the question, "What is ethical practice in paediatric speech-language pathology?";The resulting model of ethical practice in paediatric speech-language pathology presented the moral aim of clinical practice which is to make a difference in the lives of children with communication disorders ensuring that these children are part of their social world, that is, that they are socially connected to others. In order to achieve the good defined in this way, the ethical clinician, participants stated, must possess the characteristics of being other-focused, competent, knowing, honest, sensitive, and reflective. The ethical speech-language pathologist values the child and strives to do her best for the child and his family. Ethical action is centrally defined as providing support. Doing what is right involves a range of actions that are not just specific clinical activities.;Comparisons to nursing demonstrated similarities in perspectives on ethical practice. Speech-language pathologists, like nurses, attended to context, focussed on the relationship with the client and his family, recognized ethics as embedded in notions of good practice, and used everyday language to describe the ethical dimension of their clinical work.;This study offered a description of ethical practice in paediatric speech-language pathology from the point of view of clinicians in the field. As such it provides a descriptive base that serves further investigation of the phenomenon of ethical practice. Comparisons to nursing suggest that better understandings of ethical practice can be achieved with collaborative efforts to strengthen the discourse on ethics across health care disciplines.;Using an exploratory-descriptive approach, paediatric speech-language pathologists were asked to describe their perspectives on ethical practice. Individual interviews were conducted with ten participants. Data were analyzed using grounded theory techniques to explore relationships in the data and develop categories and themes relevant to ethical practice.