Dev World Bioeth. 2022 Jun;22(2):94-104. doi: 10.1111/dewb.12301. Epub 2020 Dec 1.
The moral habitus shows how morally oriented clinical interactions through everyday social evaluations generate and sustain disrespectful attitudes and behaviours that disregard patients and family members. These attitudes and behaviours often result from the habitual nature of interaction styles and embodied bodily dispositions within particular hospital settings. By utilising the data of a qualitative study in two hospitals in the south Indian city of Chennai, I illustrate the role of moral habitus in understanding these disrespectful attitudes and behaviours. I show how the stereotyping and embodied bodily dispositions by healthcare professionals raise moral and ethical questions, such as those related to ethical value of respect for persons. I conclude that studying the moral habitus of hospital settings is significant for proposing ways to respect patients and family members of patients in practice and uphold ethical values, and to have meaningful healthcare interactions. Furthermore, the concept of moral habitus offers theoretical grounds for understanding these attitudes and behaviours in hospital settings, while engaging in ethics and patient-centred care debates, to bridge the gap between theory and practice of respect.
道德习惯表现了通过日常社会评价而具有道德取向的临床互动如何产生和维持不尊重的态度和行为，而这些态度和行为忽视了患者和患者家属。这些态度和行为往往源于特定医院环境中互动方式的习惯性和身体上的固有倾向。我利用在印度南部城市钦奈的两家医院进行的定性研究的数据，说明了道德习惯在理解这些不尊重的态度和行为中的作用。我展示了医疗保健专业人员的刻板印象和身体固有倾向如何引发道德和伦理问题，例如与尊重个人的伦理价值有关的问题。我得出的结论是，研究医院环境中的道德习惯对于在实践中提出尊重患者和患者家属的方法以及维护伦理价值、实现有意义的医疗保健互动具有重要意义。此外，道德习惯的概念为理解医院环境中的这些态度和行为提供了理论基础，同时也为参与伦理和以患者为中心的护理辩论提供了理论基础，以弥合尊重的理论与实践之间的差距。
