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Ethical practice in nursing: working the in-betweens
Colleen Varcoe1, Gweneth Doane, Bernadette Pauly
1Associate Professor, School of Nursing, University of Victoria, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. cvarcoe@telus.net
Journal of Advanced Nursing
|January 15, 2004
Summary
Nurses perceive ethics as integral to their being and practice, drawing on diverse moral knowledge to navigate complex organizational and personal values. This study enhances ethical theory in nursing.
Area of Science:
- Nursing Ethics
- Bioethics
- Moral Philosophy
Background:
- Contemporary ethical theory offers value to nursing.
- Limited integration of nurses' concerns and practices into ethical theory.
- Need for nursing-informed ethical frameworks.
Purpose of the Study:
- Explore the meaning of ethics from nurses' perspectives.
- Investigate the enactment of ethical practice in nursing.
- Complement existing ethical theory with nursing insights.
Main Methods:
- Interpretive/constructivist paradigm with emergent design.
- Focus groups utilized for data collection.
- Interviews with 87 nurses across diverse practice settings.
Main Results:
- Nurses view ethics as a way of being and a process.
- Moral agency development involves dynamic use of moral knowledge.
- Ethical practice involves navigating competing values and organizational contexts.
Conclusions:
- Nurses' experiences provide new understanding of nursing ethics.
- Findings offer direction for developing nursing-specific ethical theory.
- Enhanced ethical relevance for nursing practice.