DIRTY HANDS - THE UNDERSIDE OF MARKETPLACE HEALTH-CARE

The ethos of the corporation and the urgency for profit maximization p lace pressures on health care corporations to act in a way that may be incompatible with ethical practice. Profit-driven incentives often re sult in corporate deviance and criminal behavior. Nurses may be pressu red to go along with schemes that may be unethical or illegal and beca use of shaky job markets may be unable to adhere to professional ethic al guidelines. Recent events in health care are drawn on to argue that ethical theory and research must begin to consider the issue of moral compromise of professionals as a result of deviant organizational env ironments.