Healthcare in emergency units: organization and ethical implications

This text aims to present a reflection about organizational issues, as well as possible ethical implications permeating the practice of the healthcare team at an urgency/emergency unit, providing care to victims of trauma from accidents or violence. Initially, we focused on care for external causes and its relation with work organization and ethics in the hospital environment, followed by an analysis of the ethical dimension of urgency/emergency services. The organizational and ethical issues need to be assumed by both the managers and the healthcare team working at these units since, even in precarious conditions, the professionals attempt to care for trauma victims, aiming at beneficence, even if this healthcare could cause harm when provided in inadequate conditions.