What ethics for case managers? Literature review and discussion.
BACKGROUND
Little is known about case managers' ethical issues and professional values.


OBJECTIVES
This article presents an overview of ethical issues in case managers' current practice. Findings are examined in the light of nursing ethics, social work ethics and principle-based biomedical ethics.


RESEARCH DESIGN
A systematic literature review was performed to identify and analyse empirical studies concerning ethical issues in case management programmes. It was completed by systematic content analysis of case managers' national codes of ethics.


FINDINGS
Only nine empirical studies were identified, eight of them from North America. The main dilemmas were how to balance system goals against the client's interest and client protection against autonomy. Professional codes of ethics shared important similarities, but offered different responses to these two dilemmas.


DISCUSSION
We discuss the respective roles of professional and organizational ethics. Further lines of research are suggested.
['Corvol|Aline|A|', 'Moutel|Grégoire|G|', 'Somme|Dominique|D|']
D026688:Bioethical Issues D000071959:Case Managers D032781:Codes of Ethics D036262:Empirical Research D004991:Ethics, Institutional D004993:Ethics, Nursing D006801:Humans D012947:Social Work
Case management social work organizational ethics empirical ethics relational ethics systematic review