Sammanfattning
We lack knowledge about management’s role and support for introducing ethical reflection in municipal health and care services. This study examines the significance of management support in introducing systematic meeting places for ethical reflection, in a national ethics project within the municipal health and care services. Leadership support is understood as top management’s and line managers’ understanding and acceptance that ethical reflection is important and appropriate, by allocating time and resources to the processes.
The article is based on: (1) Document studies of 180 status and final reports from the participating municipalities, as well as award letters and information circulars; (2) Interviews with members from the national project; (3) Interviews with ethics facilitators; (4 and 5) Two surveys with 137 local project administrators and 214 ethics facilitators from municipalities, respectively.
The results show that the importance of management support was not communicated by national project leadership as a requirement for the participating municipalities. Managerial support is perceived as a prerequisite to establish regular meeting places for ethical reflection. Line managers have a key role, with power to set aside time and resources. However, for systematic ethics reflection to take place beyond pilot projects, prioritization from municipal top management is required.