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The article provides a comprehensive overview of how critical thinking skills and professional responsibility can be applied to enhance the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and influence broader systemic change. The manuscript highlights three core critical thinking skills —analysis, synthesis, and transformational thinking— and discusses their importance in driving change and advancing the field. The document underscores the need for professionals in IDD to balance a philosophical approach with practical application, embracing a responsibility to their clients and society. It calls for the use of evidence-based practices, person-centered planning, and active collaboration with individuals with IDD and their families. The field is experiencing a shift towards recognizing the rights and autonomy of people with IDD. This includes adopting a \"Shared Citizenship Paradigm\" that emphasizes inclusion and empowerment.

This article addresses the need to clearly understand professional responsibility and the critical role it plays in the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), in shaping professions for the better, and in enhancing the functioning of society for the benefit of all. Understanding professional responsibility is especially timely during the current transformation that is occurring in the field of IDD. To that end, the article discusses what is a profession, who is a professional, and what is professional responsibility. Using a logic model framework, the article describes the components of professional responsibility that include its building blocks such as respect for the person, professional ethics and standards, critical thinking skills, and clinical judgment; its use of nine professional practices including empowerment, evidence-based practices, individualized supports, and person-centered outcome evaluation; its outcomes in terms of mutual trust, the improved effectiveness of clinical functions, and professional accountability; and its impacts regarding individual benefit, professional integrity, and societal enhancement.

Should laws about sex and pornography be based on social conventions about what is disgusting? Should felons be required to display bumper stickers or wear T-shirts that announce their crimes? This powerful and elegantly written book, by one of America's most influential philosophers, presents a critique of the role that shame and disgust play in our individual and social lives and, in particular, in the law. Martha Nussbaum argues that we should be wary of these emotions because they are associated in troubling ways with a desire to hide from our humanity, embodying an unrealistic and sometimes pathological wish to be invulnerable. Nussbaum argues that the thought-content of disgust embodies \"magical ideas of contamination, and impossible aspirations to purity that are just not in line with human life as we know it.\" She argues that disgust should never be the basis for criminalizing an act, or play either the aggravating or the mitigating role in criminal law it currently does. She writes that we should be similarly suspicious of what she calls \"primitive shame,\" a shame \"at the very fact of human imperfection,\" and she is harshly critical of the role that such shame plays in certain punishments. Drawing on an extraordinarily rich variety of philosophical, psychological, and historical references--from Aristotle and Freud to Nazi ideas about purity--and on legal examples as diverse as the trials of Oscar Wilde and the Martha Stewart insider trading case, this is a major work of legal and moral philosophy.

Purpose The aim of this study was to identify and describe the collaborative and professional boundary challenges at a hospital ward from a bottom-up perspective.Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted as a bottom-up improvement project at a hospital ward in western Sweden. An insider action research (IAR) approach was used during the project. The theoretical framework for this project was based on the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). Data were collected between 2019 and 2021.Findings The findings showed that unclear professional boundaries and limited resources challenged and hindered interprofessional collaboration. The project group had to reorganize its daily work to adjust to the different disciplines’ legal responsibilities in relation to the patients’ recovery process. To safely discharge patients, the professionals needed to talk about each other’s professional responsibilities, professional boundaries and ethical codes.Originality/value The IAR project revealed that revising the daily team-round routine improved the status of assistant nurses and encouraged physicians to consider input from all professions during the patients’ recovery process. However, the new approach faced resistance from clinic leadership, who believed it could prolong patients’ stays in the ward. The findings underscore the challenges of modifying hierarchical structures and social orders within hospital settings.

This study addresses the underexplored role of teacher educators in initial English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education within the Chilean context. It aims to understand how these educators perceive and instill professional responsibility among pre-service teachers. Data was collected from university-based EFL teacher educators through 48 questionnaires and 17 semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that these educators prioritize pedagogical skill development and the cultivation of social consciousness, preparing pre-service teachers to effectively respond to and proactively manage diverse educational settings. The study highlights the pivotal role of teacher educators as role models, shaping the professional identities of future teachers through the integration of ethical standards and reflective practices into the curriculum. The results highlights the need for teacher education programs to continuously adapt to changing educational demands, emphasizing autonomy and proactive professional development to equip pre-service teachers with the necessary skills and attitudes for their future roles. This research contributes to the understanding of professional responsibility in initial teacher education, offering insights into the specific challenges and strategies within the Chilean EFL context.

This research examined how stakeholders (n = 40) from one school district experienced “accountability” within a context where responsibility for student learning was being distributed across the system. Using a case study design, we examined: what conditions supported stakeholders in multiple roles to exercise responsibility for student learning? Analyses of documents and interviews revealed conditions that enabled teachers, instructional leaders, and administrators to share responsibility in relation to their roles, and empowered teachers to engage in inquiry for continuous improvement and build from their sense of professionalism and responsibility. Implications are discussed for empowering teachers, and other stakeholders, to exercise responsibility in the context of an accountability system.

Various efforts have been made in higher education in Sweden to meet the demand for more transparent governance and increased efficiency and quality. The purpose of this article is to investigate how university teachers handle standardized models for assessment and examination and orientate in this field of tension between professional responsibility and professional accountability. This study examines school-based courses in teacher education programs at a university and is based on observations from 20 seminars, 10 interviews with university teachers, and 11 focus group interviews with 55 students. The results show that university teachers interpret governing documents in different ways leading to a lack of equivalence. Within one course, four assessment practices are identified: governance as confirmation, governance with need for reinforcement, governance as distrust, and governance as others’ responsibility. This study reveals the variation in university teachers’ professional assessment practices that challenge and interplay with the context of a curriculum in different ways. Aspects of the university teachers’ professional obligation are under tension in the context of a more pronounced accountability. University teachers’ professional assessment practices emerges as fragmented in terms of what professional responsibility includes and what professional discretion involves.

Oral health care professionals (OHCPs) have the potential to play critical roles in emergency response to public health disasters, both natural and manmade. The purpose of this study was to assess the beliefs, and associated factors, of OHCPs regarding their role in vaccination promotion and administration during the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Faculty and students in the dental and dental hygiene programs at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Dentistry (n=729) were invited to participate in an anonymous electronic survey during the 2021 fall semester. The 24-item survey assessed immunization behaviors, COVID-19 opinions, vaccination training, and scope of practice beliefs. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. A total of 150 surveys were returned for a 21% response rate. Most respondents agreed it was their professional responsibility to learn about COVID-19 vaccines (77%) and to recommend COVID-19 vaccines (61%), but fewer than half agreed it was their responsibility to administer COVID-19 vaccines (34%). Only 22% of dental hygiene student respondents agreed that recommending COVID-19 vaccines was their responsibility, significantly less than the dental students (61%) and faculty (73%) who held that belief. Vaccination training increased the odds of agreement that it was an OHCP's responsibility to administer COVID-19 vaccines by a factor of 2.44 (95% CI, 1.10-5.41, =0.03). None of the respondents who delayed or refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 themselves agreed it was their professional responsibility to administer COVID-19 vaccines. Most OHCPs in this study did not view administering COVID-19 vaccines as their professional responsibility, with personal vaccine hesitancy playing a significant role. Future research is warranted to explore how dental hygiene and dental education can cultivate professional responsibility to engage in vaccination promotion and administration during public health emergencies.

Background: In disaster situations, nurses may face new and unfamiliar ethical and legal challenges not common in their everyday practice. Research question/objectives/hypothesis: The aim of this study was to explore Iranian nurses’ experience of disaster response and their perception of the competencies required by nurses in this environment. Research design: This article discusses the findings of a descriptive study conducted in Iran in 2012. Participants and research context: This research was conducted in Iran in 2012. Participants included 35 nurses who had experience in healthcare delivery following a disaster event in the past 10 years, either in a hospital or out-of-hospital context. Ethical considerations: This research study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Findings: From this study, five themes emerged as areas that nurses require competence in to work effectively in the disaster setting. This article focusses on one theme, the ethical and legal issues that arise during disaster response. Within the theme of ethical and legal issues, two sub-themes emerged. (1) Professional ethics explores professional responsibility of nurses as well as sense of ethical obligation. (2) Adherence to law refers to nurses’ familiarity with and observation of legal requirements. Discussion: This article adds to a growing pool of literature which explores the role of nurses in disasters. The findings of this study emphasize the need for nurses working in the disaster setting to be aware of professional responsibilities and familiar with legal requirements and the challenges related to observing ethical responsibilities. Conclusion: In highlighting these issues, this article may provide a useful starting point for the development of an educational framework for preparing nurses and other health professionals to work in the disaster setting.

The rapid advancements in healthcare technologies are reshaping the medical landscape, prompting a reconsideration of clinical methodologies and their ethical foundations. This article explores the need for an updated approach to medical deontology, emphasizing the transition from traditional practices to a hybrid clinical methodology that integrates both human expertise and technological innovations. With the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence, data analytics, and advanced medical tools, healthcare professionals are presented with new ethical and professional challenges. These challenges demand a reevaluation of professional responsibility, highlighting the importance of scientific evidence in decision-making while mitigating the influence of economic and ideological factors. By framing medical practice within a systemic and integrated perspective, this article proposes a model that moves beyond the reductionist and anti-reductionist dualism, fostering a more realistic understanding of healthcare. This new paradigm necessitates the evolution of the Medical Code of Ethics, integrating the concept of “medical intelligence” to address the complexities of data management and its ethical implications. The article ultimately advocates for a dynamic and adaptive approach that aligns medical practice with emerging technologies, ensuring that patient care remains person-centered and ethically grounded in a rapidly changing healthcare environment.