Duty to care” in context of communicable disease patient care

“Duty to care” is an ethical concept that relates to communicable disease patient care. The conflict between communicable disease patients’ and health care professionals’ rights and obligations is central to concept. The event that the concept describes has been recognized long ago, but the use and the meaning of the concept vary widely and the definition of the concept has remained unclear. The purpose of this study is to analyze, describe and define the concept “Duty to care” in context of communicable disease patient care.

This study was the first of the three phases of concept analysis made by Hybrid model, which consists theoretical, empirical and analytical phases. Study method was integrative literature review. Literature search was conducted in April 2017 from Scopus-, PubMed-, CINAHL-, Web of Science- and Medic- databases and also through manual search. 40 empirical studies were selected to the review by using inclusion and exclusion criteria. All uses of concept, antecedents and consequences of the concept were identified, and the defining attributes of the concept “Duty to care” were determined through data analyzing process.

The concept “Duty to care” is used to describe the sense and the feeling of the health care professionals, ethical problem related to communicable disease patient care and positive value that is generally recognized in health care. Antecedents of the concept “Duty to care” were identified. Those were situations, things or events which must appear before the concept “Duty to care” exists. The defining attributes of the concept “Duty to care” were determined based on analysis, they describe the core elements of the concept. The consequences of the concept “Duty to care” are related to quality of communicable dis-ease patient care and well-being of health care professionals.

The concept “Duty to care” describes the event related to communicable disease patient care. It is a complex event that is constructed of smaller pieces. It is possible to view and examine the event through pieces, but to accomplish a deep understanding of the event, it requires to perceive the event as a big picture. Clear definition of the concept “Duty to care” contributes to examine, analyze and solve ethical problems which relates the manifestation of the concept. The results of the study can be used when creating guidelines, policies, ethical codes and legislations considering the care of communicable disease patients. Hopefully, the results will increase and promote the transparent and wide ethical discussion in the society.