ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the moral atom of a healthcare professional which is the basic unit of the moral ecosystem of healthcare. The moral atom maps out the relational world of healthcare professionals and it aspires to inform change management, for example, at times of changing expectations from one's role as part of a greater ecosystem. The moral atom model highlights that any personal action in the healing process is explicitly situated in an array of professional responsibilities towards other stakeholders within the community. The appeal to community as a norm is significant. It demands expansion of the traditional definition of ethics from the moral duty and obligation at individual level to the ethics of community centring the communal over the individual as the primary locus of moral agency analogous to that reported for education. Quantitative knowledge may be necessary regarding ecosystem responses to service use and their impact within their specific socioeconomic, political and cultural settings.
