This paper will look at ethics in nursing, beginning with a historical overview of the evolution of nursing ethics, followed by a discussion of the moral principles important to nursing. Ethical perspectives important to nursing, such as justice vs. care, will then be discussed, followed by the implications of traditional and contemporary ethical theories for nursing ethics. Next, the paper will look at the effect of critical thinking on nursing ethics, and the importance of moral development in nurses will be explored.
The Nursing Code of Ethics began in 1893 with the "Nightingale Pledge" which was patterned after the Hippocratic Oath in medicine, and is understood as the first code of nursing ethics (ANA, 2003). The Nurses' Associated Alumnae of the United States of America and Canada, which was later to become the American Nurses Association, was established in 1896 to maintain the code of ethics for nurses. The first published version of the code appeared in the American Journal of Nursing in 1926, and another in 1940, but these were not formally adopted. A Code for Professional Nurses was finally accepted in 1950, and has been revised several times since then, with a complete revision in 2001 as the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements.
Although there is emphasis placed on collaboration in patient care in nursing, each nurse is individually responsible and accountable for their own practice (ANA/Provisions 4-6, 2003). Accountability is interpreted as accountability to oneself and to others for actions taken, and decisions made, judgments made in the course of nursing practice in spite of the regulations of the organization, which may not always be in the best interest of the patient. Responsibility refers to the liability associated with performance of one's duties in a particular role. Responsibility carries with it the ability to make moral judgments or rational decisions on one's own and be an...