VALUES AND THE FOR-PROFIT HEALTH-CARE INDUSTRY - AN UNEASY FIT

Recent developments in the for-profit psychiatric hospitals raise seri ous questions about the nature of values in proprietary healthcare. Sp ecifically for nursing, they raise the question whether nursing values are compatible with those of a for-profit environment. Suggestions th at nurses may have stood by while unethical and illegal activities too k place, with respect to clients, make this an issue that must be addr essed with some urgency.1 This article initiates a discussion of the n ature of the fit between the values of the nursing profession and the values of the for-profit healthcare system.