Nursing Ethics Education: Thinking, Feeling, and Technology

Health care ethics education has focused on the four principles approach. Although relevant and important, this dimension is insufficient on its own. Emotional, cultural, spiritual, and relational aspects of ethics must also be addressed. Ethics cases are important in ethics education but should include everyday ethics scenarios that can be messy and emotional. Such situations occur regularly in nursing practice, making microethics particularly relevant to nurses. Art, songs, film, and literature provide stories that allow exploration of everyday ethics. Technology can facilitate this and promote ethics comportment, but more work is needed to demonstrate how best to do this.