Comprehensive patient-family care: fact or fiction?

The ICN 1973 Code for nurses states that 'Nurses render health services to the individual, the family and the community...'. It goes on to say that, 'The nurse's primary responsibility is to those people who require nursing care.' Thus, our primary responsibility to provide comprehensive care to patients and their families is a concept we teach and preach, but can it be achieved? In this paper, I would like to present the ethical dilemmas expressed by nurses as inherent in the care of patients and their families, address the difficulties in treating patients and their families in the light of these dilemmas and propose a different approach to dealing with the problem.