Comparing the codes of ethics of the six signatory associations of the Mutual Recognition Agreement

Abstract

Purpose: The Agreement for the Mutual Recognition of Professional Association Credentials (MRA) between six national associations provides a mutually negotiated expedited process for applying for certification in speech-language pathology by any of the signatory associations. Although the MRA recognizes common standards in academic and clinical practice and eases the process to have credentials recognized, an interesting concept is that SLPs who have membership in more than one association must adhere to the code of ethics in each association. Thus, as SLPs will need to abide by them the question then becomes, are the codes of ethics in the six national associations comparable?

Method: Using a content analysis procedure, the authors sought to identify similarities between the six codes of ethics.

Result: The results revealed similarities between the six codes in areas such as responsibility to clients, professional conduct and practitioner competence.

Conclusion: The findings should not to be interpreted to imply that one code of ethics was better or more comprehensive than another, as each code of ethics must be understood and interpreted in temporal, situational and local cultural contexts. Rather, the discussion includes a proposal to create a unified document.

Keywords::

• Ethical issues
• cross-cultural
• speech-language pathologists
• mutual recognition agreement

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Supplementary material available online

Supplementary Appendix: Coding definitions.