ArticleJournal of medical ethics2020
Balancing the duty to treat with the duty to family in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Journal of medical ethics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Interventions to Enhance COVID-19 Pandemic Health Literacy in Health Professionals: Systematic Review.JMIR medical education · 2026Pooled it
- Clinician Obligations to Care for Patients Infected With Special Pathogens.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Managing Aggressive Behaviour in Healthcare: Balancing of Patients and Staff Interests.The Malaysian journal of medical sciences : MJMS · 2024Article
- Fear of COVID-19 among Frontline Nurses in a National University Hospital in the Philippines: A Mixed-Methods Study.Acta medica Philippina · 2024Article
- Factors Influencing the Healthcare Workers' Willingness to Receive the COVID-19 Booster Dose in Tuscany (Italy).Vaccines · 2023Article
- How Midwestern College students protected their families in the first year of COVID-19.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Moral Decision-Making in Healthcare and Medical Professions During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Trends in psychology · 2023Article
- Duty to treat and perceived risk of contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic: Norwegian physicians' perspectives and experiences-a questionnaire survey.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Article
- Health Literacy in Health Professionals Two Years into the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results From a Scoping Review.JMIR medical education · 2022Article
- Duty to Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study of Perceptions of Health Care Providers in Jordan.Journal of emergency nursing · 2022Article
- Factors associated with burnout among medical laboratory professionals in Ontario, Canada: An exploratory study during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.The International journal of health planning and management · 2022Article
- The impact of COVID-19 on health care professionals who are exposed to drug-related deaths while supporting clients experiencing addiction.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2022Article
- Nursing violent patients: Vulnerability and the limits of the duty to provide care.Nursing inquiry · 2022Article
- Risk of Secondary Household Transmission of COVID-19 from Health Care Workers in a Hospital in Spain.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Making complex decisions in uncertain times: experiences of Dutch GPs as gatekeepers regarding hospital referrals during COVID-19-a qualitative study.BMC medical ethics · 2021Article
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Working Lives and Retirement Timing of Older Nurses in Ireland.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Workplace Well-Being and Intent to Stay by Health Care Workers Reassigned during the First COVID-19 Wave: Results of a Swiss Survey.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Nurses' pandemic lives: A mixed-methods study of experiences during COVID-19.Applied nursing research : ANR · 2021Article
- Cardiopulmonary resuscitation during the COVID-19 pandemic: Maintaining provider and patient safety.The American journal of emergency medicine · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
Healthcare systems around the world are struggling to maintain a sufficient workforce to provide adequate care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Staffing problems have been exacerbated by healthcare workers (HCWs) refusing to work out of concern for their families. I sketch a deontological framework for assessing when it is morally permissible for HCWs to abstain from work to protect their families from infection and when it is a dereliction of duty to patients. I argue that it is morally permissible for HCWs to abstain from work when their duty to treat is outweighed by the combined risks and burdens of that work. For HCWs who live with their families, the obligation to protect one's family from infection contributes significantly to those burdens. There are, however, a range of complicating factors including the strength of duty to treat which varies according to the HCW's role, the vulnerability of family members to the disease, the willingness of family members to risk infection and the resources available to the HCW to protect their family. In many cases, HCWs in 'frontline' roles with a weak duty to treat and families at home will be morally permitted to abstain from work given the risks posed by COVID-19; therefore, society should provide additional incentives to maintain sufficient staff in these roles.
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Registered trials
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