DEVELOPING A SOCIAL-WORK RESEARCH AGENDA ON ETHICS IN HEALTH-CARE

This article advocates greater empirical research on ethics in health care by social work researchers. Although an extensive theoretical lit erature exists, scant empirical research has been conducted on ethical issues by social work researchers since 1980, compared with physician s and other health care researchers. A theoretical framework is presen ted as a heuristic device to stimulate research on a range of topics, including the content and nature of ethical deliberations, contextual factors, and ethical outcomes. By demonstrating empirically that their interventions improve ethical outcomes, social work researchers can p rovide ammunition to support social work's role in ethical deliberatio ns in health care settings.