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.