Ethics for Nurses: Theory and Practice

Ethics underpin all aspects of nursing activity but the concepts can often seem remote or inaccessible. This refreshing new book will help nurses explore and explain key aspects of ethical nursing practice in a practical and engaging way.

Using plentiful examples and case studies, this book focuses on showing readers how to apply ethical principles to everyday nursing practice and deliver excellent care as a result.

The book explores and helps answer questions such as::

• What are rights?
• What is dignity?
• How are nurses accountable?
• How does the law relate to ethics?
• What is a dignified death?

The authors have created a set of fictional characters who experience various healthcare dilemmas and scenarios, and appear throughout the book. These characters help illustrate different aspects of ethics in healthcare and bring ethical concepts and decision making to life.

This book is essential reading for nurses preparing to qualify or those already qualified and doing further study.

This is an ideal introductory text for students of nursing and other allied health professions because it is written in an accessible style. The authors discuss key ethical theories and principles but make them meaningful by applying them to contemporary scenarios in healthcare. They encourage the reader to examine their own beliefs and values and consider how these can impact on their own professional judgment and decision making.
Melanie Fisher LLM (Medical Law), Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, UK

This is a very readable textbook that deals with the fundamentals of healthcare ethics for nurses. Starting with an introduction to the issues underpinning ethical knowledge, such as values and beliefs, it then leads into ethical concepts such as rights, dignity and accountability and concludes with specific areas of practice, such as dignified death and research. As such it would be useful reading to support an undergraduate programme introducing students to ethical theory. The use of think boxes and short exercises is particularly useful in ensuring that theory can be contextualised and made sense of by the student in real-life scenarios. Academic staff may find these useful as activities to use in workshops with students.
Deborah C. Casey, Senior Lecturer in Nursing, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

I believe strongly that there needs to be much greater understanding of moral nursing practice particularly at a time when there has been much negative press regarding poor and undignified patient care, along with a failure by nurses to advocate for the frail and vulnerable. Education requires appropriate materials to enable those learning about nursing and health care. This text succeeds in providing clear explanations of ethics for nurses in relatively plain English that will enable the essentials of moral caring behaviour. The reader is encouraged to engage with ethical concepts and principles through ‘think boxes, ‘points for consideration and the ‘residents of Oak Avenue that facilitate linking theory to practice. Overall the reader is guided from one subject to the next through each chapter in a logical manner that gives a useful perspective to understanding the essentials for moral nursing practice.
Linnette King, Principal Lecturer, Faculty of Health and Social Science, University of Brighton, UK