Nursing Ethical Dilemma: Professor-Student Relationship

Ethical Dilemma: Professor-Student Relationship

Vignette #2: A single male professor dated students for years, one student at a time. Sometimes, the student was taking the course he was teaching, sometimes not. Eventually, he married one of them.

Introduction

Relationships being natural, between adults with consent and who understand what they want, brings a confusing situation, especially involving a professor and a student. I think that quite often, the relationships involving lecturers and students are characterized with higher probabilities of pitfalls as compared to average relationships involving students purely. The considerations to this include ethical, legal, as well as social implications on both individuals and the external parties. In the solution to this dilemma, it is essential for me to consider the events leading to the formation of such relationships between professors and students. There could be a shared or common connection between the individuals, for instance, a common love for an academic field or area of interest such as a hobby that reunites the two people, their state of professional relationship notwithstanding.

Ethical Concerns

Ethically, any romantic relationship between a professor and a student is not upright and inappropriate. The relationship is inappropriate and creates questions of an imbalanced power since the student does not often get into these relationships as an equal to the professor, resulting in an uneven ground for the relationship (Murray 2021). In my opinion, for a morally upright professor-student relationship, any romantic intuition between the two should be done with and ended as soon as possible to reduce the risks of harm. Moreover, professors need not extend the relationships with students beyond the classroom. This is because these types of relationships are more predisposed to misconduct, violence, and compulsion. I think there is the need for substantive policies to provide a change in the influence that exists between the professor and the student and deal with the resultant inequality. These relationships can also result in a student deviating from the positive learning environment and experience. Professional work has ethical considerations, with responsibilities being taken up, conveyed, and expressed in relationships linked with other people’s roles, with the probability of conveying harm or benefit (Banks 2008). Therefore, in the case of such a relationship, I came to realize that there needs to be a healthy way to do it without necessarily having to influence the student entirely and intimidate her in any manner. Any power discrepancy should be reported by the student. As a professor, I should be fervent on the relationship together with the student. Sobriety, openness to communication, consciousness as well as respect should be maintained at all times to portray the consensual nature of the relationship.

Societal concerns

Apart from the institutional policies, I feel that the potential differentials in power, and the ethical contemplations, some pressures and implications may arise from the societal and institutional environment regarding professor-student relationships. It changes how society and the institution look at each party. According to Murray (2021), there is a close sentry that is kept by society on the morals that exist in an educational or professional institution. Therefore, I think there is a haze on the streak of differences in hierarchy and age that the society considers unpronounced and thus provides a distinction on the ethical type of relationships.

Experiencing the reality

There is a possibility that the individuals could have met without any party realizing the other was a student of the other or vice versa. As a concern, in my perspective, I think a professor should not enter into any relationship or connection consensually with a student over whom he has a straight or substantial authority such as of academic, evaluative, counseling, supervisory, or administrative nature. Murray (2021) provides that this should be an official policy of any academic or social institution involving superiors and subjects and as such necessary procedures and guidelines should be set aside for the reassignments and problem solutions to prevent the desecrations of the guiding principle. Therefore, I believe there is a need to come to terms that despite the relationships between professors and their students being uncalled for and rare, they actually do happen. Emotional attachments are some key factors that may be considered in terms of the assessment of this type of relationship without prior intentions by either party.

Some circumstances can be encountered by social workers based on conflicts with their professionalism and their sexual relationships (Reamer 2003). Arguably, a student may seek personal assistance from her professor with pure intentions. In my opinion, this may bring the two closer together, and their common interests may be a driving force to a relatively natural feeling of attraction to each other. It may end up in a relationship that no party had an intention of having. I also understand that it is right to judge them as humans and consider the possibility of human nature to forge relationships easily. It means that the two can get along in various ways that may end up in a romantic relationship, given the familiarity in terms of personality, interests, and the environment. Therefore, it might be correct to say that this relationship can help a student grow in person. I think this relationship should not just be shunned as unwarranted; but instead, there is a need to involve the two individuals and let them come up with the most ethical way for them to engage in their relationship in a nonprofessional situation.

Conclusion

Conclusively, before engaging in this type of romantic relationship, I feel that there is a need for both parties to review some of the guidelines that are provided by professional bodies on the matter, such as the NASW. In this way, I think that they can familiarize themselves with the relevant documentation and code of ethics on handling such situations. The professionals can also take advantage of the opinions and experiences of their colleagues to remain ethically responsible to their subjects and clients. I feel that there is a need to ensure that the decisions made concerning this matter do not influence the professional boundaries whatsoever, staying within the limits of the law. Overall, in my opinion, these factors and situations together should be analyzed before taking any action to get to know the implications of the actions taken.

References

Banks, S. (2008). Critical commentary: social work ethics. The British Journal of Social Work, 38(6), 1238-1249. https://www.academic.oup.com/bjsw/article-abstract/38/6/1238/1661494

Murray, A. (2021). Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. 2021 Amendments: NAW Code of Ethics: Self-Care and Cultural Competence. Retrieved from https:www.socialworkers.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=UyXb_VQ35QA%3d&portalid=0

Reamer, F.G. (2003). Boundary issues in Social Work: Managing dual relationships. Social work, 48(1), 121-133. https://www.academic.oup.com/sw/article-abstract/48/1/121/1919278