Ethical Competence In Nursing Essay

In the public service sector, majority of the careers require some sort of independent decision making by the employee. Yes, there is usually a syllabi with responsibilities listed. For teachers, there are lesson objectives and testing benchmarks as to a nurse, there are patient vitals and hourly check-ins. Even with those tasks, at some point, that teacher or nurse finds themselves in a position where their professional behavior then becomes based off of their personal principles, giving them lead way to act not only on their career responsibilities but now on their moral duties as well. So instead of just teaching the classroom or checking in on the patients, we now take into account how the teacher chooses to discipline the students or the extent of compassion the nurse shows.

Desmond Berghofer, “Ethical competence is closely associated with the concept of emotional competence, which determines how well we handle ourselves and each other.” Desmond who is chairman of the International Foundation of Learning and Co-founder of the Institute for Ethical Leadership published a very brief report entitled the Ethical Competence Framework in which he explains that at the start of the 21st century we are beginning to understand for the first time that we live in an interdependent world in which no part can prosper without being concerned with the well-being of other parts. Along with his ideology, he incorporates a lot if research from an idol of his, Daniel Goleman, who’s 1990’s research focuses on the topic of “emotional intelligence”. Berghofer refers to Goleman’s definition of emotional competence as “a learned capability based on emotional intelligence that results in outstanding performance at