Physicians and Nurses in the Dutch Armed Forces

This book analyzes the challenges and ethical dilemmas military physicians and nurses experienced while deployed on military operations—and how they dealt with them. It traces the developments during the deployment of medical personnel within the Dutch armed forces between 1990 and 2010. Throughout this time, medical personnel were confronted with anything from a scarcity of supplies to military hierarchy, factors that potentially threatened their medical standards as well as their professional autonomy. They had to navigate between differing expectations, priorities, and moral codes of the medical and the military profession.

This book makes an original and indispensable contribution to academic debates on medical personnel in the armed forces and dual loyalty, ethical decision-making processes, moral competence, and the salience of (professional) identity in the role of perception, decision-making and coping, both during and after deployment. The target audience for this book is primarily academics working in the social sciences, humanities, medicine, and ethics. Military and medical practitioners, policymakers, NGOs, and educational institutions may use the book’s findings for policy and educational purposes.