Moral philosophy and nursing curricula: indoctrination of the new breed

A sizable proportion of nursing curricula subtly indoctrinate students with a particular normative ethic. Seldom is there adequate philosophical justification for the ethic, and students are rarely invited to subject that ethic to a rigorous philosophical analysis. Nursing curricula are replete with philosophical positions treated as moral imperatives to which all, students and faculty, owe their allegiance. This unsatisfactory situation warrants urgent attention. One problem is that of failing to justify the school's moral philosophy; another is the question of philosophically indoctrinating students to adhere to an ethic that advocates the individual's freedom and responsibility, a practice inconsistent with the predominant proposition advanced by the ethic.