Invisible Hands Behind Clean Hands: Procurement Justice, Materiality, and Nursing Praxis

Area of Science:

• Nursing Ethics
• Bioethics
• Global Health Ethics

Background:

• Traditional nursing ethics centers on the bedside encounter.
• Material conditions and supplies are often viewed as ethically external to nursing practice.
• This perspective is incomplete as supplies are linked to global labor, extraction, and disposal systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To challenge the philosophical neutrality of clinical supplies in nursing.
• To explore the ethical responsibility of nurses regarding the production of clinical supplies.
• To argue for an expanded view of nursing ethics that includes procurement.

Main Methods:

• Feminist political economy analysis
• Care ethics framework
• Materiality-oriented perspectives
• Examination of personal protective equipment (PPE) supply chains

Main Results:

• Clinical supplies are embedded in global systems with potential for exploitation and environmental degradation.
• Care is a relational, material, and politically organized practice, not just interpersonal.
• Procurement is a moral concern within nursing, not solely managerial.

Conclusions:

• Nursing ethics must encompass the material infrastructures of care.
• Professional responsibility includes epistemic attentiveness, advocacy, and collective action regarding supply chains.
• Procurement justice expands the meaning of care and responsibility, demanding ethical consideration for all involved in material support.