Virtue ethics and nursing: on what grounds?

Area of Science:

• Nursing Ethics
• Moral Philosophy

Background:

• The nursing ethics literature emphasizes the role of character in defining a 'good nurse'.
• Character is often linked to actions, necessitating an examination of the nurse as an agent.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an overview of the importance of character in nursing practice.
• To analyze the relationship between character, virtue ethics, and nursing.
• To recommend caution regarding the emphasis on character psychology and virtue ethics.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of nursing ethics and virtue ethics.
• Philosophical analysis of character, virtue, and ethical justification.
• Exploration of the relationship between psychological and normative aspects of character.

Main Results:

• While character is crucial in nursing, excessive focus on virtue ethics and its psychological underpinnings requires caution.
• A clear link between psychological explanations and normative justifications is needed.
• Nursing practice may benefit from a two-level moral thinking approach, incorporating virtues and consequentialist criteria.

Conclusions:

• Caution is advised in the application of virtue ethics in nursing due to its contested nature.
• Nursing ethics should carefully consider the balance between character-based virtues and other ethical frameworks.
• A potential framework involves virtues at one level and consequentialist/realist metaethics for critical evaluation at another.