Quality of life and ethics: A concept analysis

Abstract

Background: In health, ethics is an essential aspect of practice and care and guarantees a better quality of life for patients and their caregivers. Objective: To outline a conceptual analysis of quality of life and ethics, identifying attributes, contexts and magnitudes for health. Method: A qualitative design about quality of life and ethics in health, considering the evolutionary approach in order to analyse the concept. To collect the data, a search was done using the keywords ethic*, quality of life and health. After, in total, 152 studies were found, finalizing seven relevant studies for the proposed concept analysis. Findings and discussion: Of seven studies analysed, their main results were shown by means of antecedents, consequences and attributes of the concepts. The three final attributes that synthesize the concept of quality of life and ethics in health were highlighted: Ethics dilemmas and quality of life; Human ethics and quality of life; and Ethics of care and quality of life. In fact, the attributes and context clearly reveal that ethics and quality of life influence the ability to solve ethical dilemmas, guarantee human ethics in healthcare and impact ethics in healthcare for the production of effective health policies and care that encompasses professional quality of life as well. Conclusion: The magnitude of ethical knowledge in each professional discipline permits cultivating a solidary attitude and developing the willingness to improve healthcare. The right to access, dignity and respect in care delivery are rooted in behaviours and are spontaneously applied in practice to the extent that they play an ethical role.