Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
Nursing strikes: an ethical perspective on the US healthcare community
1Philosophy Department, St Cloud State University, 3218 E 54th St, Minneapolis, MN 55417, USA. pgneiman@stcloudstate.edu
Abstract:
Recent labor disputes between registered nurses and hospitals in Minnesota, California, and Pennsylvania raise moral questions about nurses' professional obligations, nurses' right to collectively bargain to preserve or improve wages, benefits, and working conditions, and patients' right to medical care. Deontology and consequentialism focus too narrowly on nurses and patients, and thus ignore the nature of the healthcare community as a system of competing interests. When considered in this context, nurses' strikes are shown to be consistent with this system of competing interests, and thus are morally permissible.
Related Concept Videos
Ethical Issues
Ethical Concerns in Healthcare:
Nursing Ethical Principles I
Autonomy
Autonomy underscores the significance of a patient's self-determination and freedom from external control. In healthcare, respecting the...
Nursing Code of Ethics
Ethical Dilemmas I
Let us explore some examples to understand the potentially complex moral decisions nurses face.
Take the case of caring for minors, particularly in areas related to reproductive...
Ethical Standards I
The Code of Ethics provisions outline the nurse's duty to the patient, the healthcare team, the profession, and society. The Code's fundamental principles include advocacy,...
Standards of Care I