Ethics and politics of resource allocation: The role of nursing

The use of ethics in everyday nursing practice will become increasingly important to the individual nurse, and nursing as a profession, as technology has a greater impact on health status and the provision of health care. Resource allocation is only one example of an ethical issue in which nursing must have input. Nursing can expand its contribution to society by ensuring that it plays a major role in shaping public policy and legislation. If nursing is to continue to serve the public, the involvement of nurses within the political process must be accepted as an ethical necessity.Margaret Keatings, RN, MHSc, is the Director, Nursing Practice in the Department of Medicine at Toronto General Hospital. She combines this role with a strong interest in biomedical ethics to serve as co-chair of the hospital's clinical ethics committee. Keatings is also an assistant professor in the University of Toronto Faculty of Nursing. In spring 1988, she participated in an exchange program between Toronto General Hospital and a teaching hospital in Cambridge, England.Diana Dick, RN, BScN, MEd, co-ordinated a national campaign of the Canadian Nurses Association resulting in two significant amendments to the Canada Health Act (1984). As Project Manager with the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, she initiated the Association's involvement in the Grange Inquiry. She has taught at Seneca College, practised nursing in special care units, and written and spoken both nationally and internationally on resource allocation. Currently she works in a branch of Ontario's Pay Equity Commission.     

On Modernizing Local Public Finance

Abstract . Urban economists tend to agree that land value taxation is both equitable and efficient. Then why won't American urban areas reform their property taxes into a land value tax? One explanation may be that the climate of opinion is that the taxation of wealth is wrong. This may be another of the legacies of the Great Depression. In the 20 years preceding, levels of property taxation increased very substantially; this was associated with rapid urbanization and big increases in public expenditures. Even with the collapse of property values urban governments extended expenditures and hence taxes on real property—as they did again with inflation in the 1970s. But in the 70s residents were predominantly owner-occupants—a result of counter depression policy. Their hostility to taxing unrealized capital gains is the obstacle advocates of land value taxation have to overcome.     

Short reviews

Charlie Mason, 1988: Government Restructuring of Vocational Education and Training 1981-1987. School for Advanced Urban Studies. £6.50

Confederation of British Industry, September 1988: Building a stronger partnership between business and secondary education: Report of the CBI Business/Education Task Force.

CBI member's price £25, non-member's price £50.

Amin Rajan with Julie Frayatt, 1988: Create or Abdicate: The City's Human Resource Choice for the 90's. Brighton: Institute of Manpower Studies, £25.

Jim Brown and Lydia Baker, 1989: Co-operative Training & Development: Measuring Success. London Co-operative Training, £2.95.

OECD, 1988: Measures to assist the long-term unemployed; recent experiences in some OECD countries, £7.50.