essay on nursing values

Top 25 Professional Nursing Values + Why They're Important

If you are a nurse seeking to find ways to boost your career and your relationships, the best way to start is by developing strong professional nursing values. Maybe you are wondering, “What are the top professional nursing values?” or “How do I learn about professional nursing values?” If that sounds like you, this article is for you. As you continue reading, you will find 25 top professional nursing values and why they are important to successful nursing.

What Exactly are Professional Nursing Values?

7 main reasons why professional values are important in nursing, what are the top professional nursing values, 1. trustworthiness, what is it:, why is it important in nursing:, 2. accountability, 3. compassion, 4. integrity, 5. value diversity, 6. curiosity, 7. autonomy, 8. positive self-esteem, 10. professionalism, 11. desire for excellence, 12. altruism, 13. ingenuity, 14. respect for human dignity, 15. ethical, 16. advocacy, 17. precision, 18. loyalty, 19. cultural humility, 20. dedicated to learning, 21. selflessness, 22. supports social justice, 23. sympathy, 24. professional competency, 25. commitment to nursing, my final thoughts.

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Nursing Values in Nursing

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• Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res
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Nursing ethical values and definitions: A literature review

Mohsen shahriari.

Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Eesa Mohammadi

1 Department of Nursing, Medical Sciences Faculty, Tarbiat Modares University, Bridge Nasr (Gisha), Tehran, Iran

Abbas Abbaszadeh

2 Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Masoud Bahrami

3 Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Background:

Ethical values offer a framework for behavior assessment, and nursing values influence nurses’ goals, strategies, and actions. A literature review was adopted in order to determine and define ethical values for nurses.

Materials and Methods:

This literature review was conducted based on the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination guidelines. The key words used to search relevant sources were nursing, ethics, ethical values, and nursing values. The search of articles in English was carried out in Medline, CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus, Ovid, and Proquest databases. The search of articles in Persian was conducted in databases of Magiran, SID, and Irandoc publications. After assessing and analyzing the obtained data, 17 articles which had a distinct definition of ethical values were chosen and subjected to a thorough study.

The search yielded 10 nursing ethical values: Human dignity, privacy, justice, autonomy in decision making, precision and accuracy in caring, commitment, human relationship, sympathy, honesty, and individual and professional competency.

Conclusions:

This study showed that common ethical values are generally shared within the global community. However, in several areas, influences of social, cultural, and economical status and religious beliefs on values result in a different definition of these values. This study revealed that based on humanistic nature of nursing, common values in nursing protect human dignity and respect to the patients. Recognizing and definition of ethical values can help to improve nursing practice and develop codes of ethics.

I NTRODUCTION

Nurses as one of the health service providers and members in health system who are responsible for giving care to the clients and patients based on ethical issues.[ 1 ] They need ethical knowledge to conduct their appropriate function to manage situations and to give safe and proper legal and ethical care in today's changing world.[ 2 ] With regard to practical care, they always try to answer the question of “What can I do?,” whereas they should try to answer what is essential to be done for the patients in the context of ethical principles.[ 3 ] Ethics seek the best way of taking care of the patients as well as the best nursing function.[ 4 ]

Nurses are responsible for their clinical function, and their main responsibility is to take care of the clients and patients who deserve appropriate and safe care.[ 5 ] They act based on the values they have selected. These values form a framework to evaluate their activities influencing their goals, strategies, and function.[ 6 ] These values can also be counted as a resource for nurses’ conduct toward clinical ethical competency and their confrontation with contemporary ethical concerns. Values conduct human life priorities and form the world we live in. They act as one of the most basic parts of human life. Ethical values are inseparable components of the society and, as a result, nursing profession.[ 7 , 8 ]

Discovery of basic values and reaching an agreement on clinical ethical values are essential with regard to constant changes in nurses’ social class and role.[ 9 ] Nurses’ awareness of their values and the effect of these values on their behavior is a core part of humanistic nursing care.[ 10 ] They need to tailor their function to the value system and cultural beliefs of their service recipients.[ 11 ] Values originate from cultural environment, social groups, religion, lived experiences, and the past. Social, cultural, religious, political, and economic considerations influence individuals and their value system,[ 6 ] and ultimately, health, education, social strategies, and patients’ care. Numerous documents have been prepared in nursing texts and literature concerning these values and clarification of their traits.[ 7 , 9 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]

Recognition and definition of nursing ethical values in various communities can help nurses have mutual understanding in international level. It can also bring nurses closer to reach a common meaning of care in patients with different cultures. However, there is a paucity of research particularly in the Iranian context to deeply explore nursing ethical values. Therefore, in the first step, the main aim of the study was to identify and explore nursing ethical values reflected in nursing texts. This search was then used to prepare code of ethics and clinical guidelines for Iranian nurses, along with other documents and evidences. Results of other aspects of the study have been reported in other articles from the researchers.

M ATERIALS AND M ETHODS

This study is a part of a bigger study conducted in the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. A literature review was carried out in 2010 to determine ethical values and related definitions in nursing systems of various countries.

In this literature review, the York University four-step approach was applied. These steps are as follows: Forming questions and determining search strategies, extracting synthesis, providing quality assessments and applying study evaluation tools, and suggesting methods to analyze and data synthesis.[ 17 ]

Search strategy

The study tried to answer the following questions:

• What nursing ethical values are determined and offered in this study?
• What is the definition of each value?

In this literature review, all published articles in English language from 1995 to 2010, as well as articles in Persian from 1996 to 2010 were searched by separated keywords and then keywords in combination, respectively. AND/OR was used combination and collection of various key words together. A manual search was also adopted and the references of the articles were studied as well. The search yielded about 82 articles whose titles and abstracts were studied. The articles not meeting the inclusion criteria were left out. Inclusion criteria were: Articles published in English or Persian and those articles on nursing ethical values in patients’ care. At this stage, 37 articles were excluded and 45 were selected and comprehensively reviewed. In the next stage, the articles were completely studied with regard to inclusion criteria and their answers to the questions of the present study.

Finally, 17 related articles were selected and considered for the study. Data were extracted through firstly writing down the detected values and their definitions in the related articles. Then, the research team compared the findings and recorded them in a table, and selected the best definition of each value among the suggested definitions. Finally, after comparison of the names and words, a unique definition for each value was achieved based on the trait of definition.

Research team checked all selected articles concerning assessment of quality based on criteria of study quality evaluation tool. This tool was designed by the research team with regard to the study goal. Two questions were considered with respect to the various research methods employed in the selected articles. The questions were as follows:

• Does the article express nursing ethical values?
• Does the article contain a clear and specific definition for the expressed ethical values?

In order to increase study credibility, the abstracts were studied by researchers individually and the obscure points were discussed by the research team. In case of a disagreement to include an article in the study, a third member of the research team conducted further investigations, the obscure points were discussed in the group, and a final decision was made.

In the stage of data combination, all textual obtained data from the selected articles were classified and completely described. After textual data had been extracted and studied critically, the traits were separated and finalized based on the obtained definition for each value or ethical concept and finally a unique definition was obtained. Each obtained defined value has been explained in the section “Discussion.” These defined values suggested appropriate answers to literature review questions.

Articles methodological traits

The articles were from 12 countries: Four from US, two from Canada, five from European countries (Belgium, England, Finland), and six from Asian countries (Iran, Japan, China, Thailand, and Taiwan).

Reviewed articles included two quantitative studies, eight qualitative studies, three literature reviews, two philosophical inquiries, and two action research philosophical methods. Various sampling methods had been precisely employed in these studies. 1360 subjects comprised the recruited subjects in these 17 articles. In two quantitative descriptive studies, 922 clinical nurses and nursing students had been randomly selected through census sampling. In qualitative researches, the participants comprised 438, randomly selected through purposive sampling. The number of participants ranged between 20 and 300 individuals. In most of these qualitative studies, the participants included clinical nurses accompanied by nurse educators.[ 9 , 18 , 19 , 20 ] In one study, the participants were just clinical nurses, and in another,[ 21 ] they were just nursing students.[ 22 ]

The data were mostly collected through individual interviews which were, in some cases, the only source of data and in some other cases accompanied by other methods. The data had been collected by different methods: One by individual interviews and group discussion,[ 20 ] one by individual interview and observation,[ 18 ] one by narration and individual interview,[ 19 ] one by group discussion and narration,[ 22 ] and finally, in only one by group discussion.[ 9 ] In two studies, data had been collected through literature content analysis;[ 10 , 13 ] in two, by applying intervention;[ 16 , 23 ] in two other, through literature review;[ 7 , 24 ] and finally, in two studies, the data had been collected through philosophical inquiries.[ 6 , 25 ]

In two quantitative studies adopted to collect data, standard tools had been employed. In the study of Weis (2000), Nurses’ Professional Values Scale (NPVS) with confirmed reliability and validity had been utilized.[ 26 ] Rassin (2008) used nursing code of ethics related to International Nursing Association to evaluate nurses’ professional values as well as the Rokeach Values Survey with confirmed reliability and content validity to assess nurses’ personal values.[ 15 ]

Quality appraisal

The selected articles were reviewed concerning their quality. Application of a systematic literature scientific method in the present literature review study let the research review the articles based on research questions, research project, data collection method, data analysis method, data credibility, ethical considerations, and the results.

In quantitative studies reviewed, standard questionnaires had been adopted for data collection, data analysis method had been clearly defined, and the necessary permissions had been obtained from university and other needed institutes to respect ethical considerations. The results were also in the direction of research questions.

In qualitative studies, research methodology and data analysis had been clearly stated, and participants’ consents had been obtained to respect ethical considerations. Various methods had been employed for credibility: Data collection from various methods,[ 19 , 20 , 22 ] precise transcription, and data recheck and conformability with participants and colleagues.[ 18 , 19 , 20 ]

Data analysis methods of the studies, conducted based on philosophical research methodology and action research, had not been clearly mentioned, but their results were related.

General traits of reviewed studies

General traits of reviewed studies in the context of nursing ethical values have been presented in Table 1 . The reviewed articles had investigated nurses’ ethical values from different aspects.

Outline of studies included in the review

In various studies, the values had been differently introduced and defined. Most of the reviewed articles had focused on common nursing ethical values.[ 22 ] In some, several values and in some other, only one value had been introduced and defined. Konishi (2009) had only studied the value of harmony in nursing and had suggested that as one of the most fundamental values in Japan.[ 13 ] Verpeet (2003) had defined values as nurses’ responsibility against their patients, profession, other health team members, and society.[ 10 ] Naden (2004) in his study to define components of human dignity indicated braveness, responsibility, respect, commitment, and ethical desires.[ 18 ] Wros (2004) reported a significant difference in ethical value of decision making among the nurses in two countries.[ 19 ] Trailer (2004) claims that respect to the patients has the highest priority among codes of ethics and acts as a basic value to design the nursing ethical codes which include three main elements of respect, reliability, and mutuality.[ 25 ]

Shih (2009) reported that 75% of the participants had indicated taking care of the patients and their related individuals and altruism as the most common nursing values. Other values in his study were provision of holistic professional and appropriate care, promotion of personal and professional competency, disease prevention, health promotion, promotion of interpersonal communication skills, and receiving fair reward.[ 9 ]

Weis (2000), through factor analysis, introduced eight factors for professional values of which the most important one was nurses’ role in care and dimension of commitment.[ 26 ] Pang (2009) stated nursing professional values in seven themes of altruism, care, respecting the dignity, trust, accountability, independency, and justice.[ 20 ] Mahmoodi (2008) indicated responsibility, having mental and emotional communication, value, and ethics criteria such as honesty in work, mutual respect, religious margins and confidentiality, justice and fairness.[ 21 ] Shaw (2008) and Fahrenwald (2005) in our studies, in a different way, investigated application of five nursing professional values in nursing education, including altruism, independency, respect to dignity, nursing interventions’ integrity, and social justice.[ 16 , 23 ] Horton (2007) stated that personal and organizational values have effects on nursing and introduced values such as responsibility, honesty, patients’ participation, integrity and humanity protection, patients’ independency, deep humanistic relationship, dignity, hope, passion, teamwork, differentiation, versatility, altruism, nurturing, integrity and support, reciprocal trust, sound knowledge, clinical competence, communications, unity, homogeneity, coordination, self-sacrifice and devotion, self-protection, privacy preservation, creativity, aesthetics, management, economizing, braveness, commitment, ethical attitude, personal orientation, judgment, freedom, individualism, acknowledgment, and personal success.[ 7 ] Two studies had stated detection of ethical values as the basis for collection of codes of ethics.[ 24 , 27 ]

D ISCUSSION

In all of the articles studied in the present literature review, patients’ dignity and respect had been stated as the most frequent value indicated in 12 articles, equality and justice in 8 articles, and altruism and precise care and making appropriate relationships were indicated in 6 articles, respectively.

Comparison and finalization of the obtained data concerning nursing ethical values in patients’ care yielded 10 values mostly indicated in the articles: Human dignity, altruism, social justice, autonomy in decision making, precision and accuracy in caring, responsibility, human relationship, individual and professional competency, sympathy, and trust. The 10 obtained values in this literature review and their definitional traits are presented subsequently.

Human dignity

Respecting human dignity was the most common value indicated in the reviewed articles. Respect to individuals including the persons, their families, and the society has been mentioned as an important nursing ethical value. Dignity respect has been defined with definitional traits as consideration of human innate values, respecting patient's beliefs and preservation of their dignity and privacy during clinical procedures, and communication with the patients, and contains understanding the patients and devoting to fulfill clients’ needs.[ 15 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 27 ] Pang (2009) argues that nurses should accept that people deserve respect and dignity in action. They should practically cover patients’ body parts if exposed and keep patients’ secrets confidential.[ 20 ]

This value has been suggested in most of the articles possibly as a result of humanistic nature of nursing profession in helping others. This value had been emphasized in all articles of Asian countries, reflecting cultural similarities in these countries. This value has also been indicated in most of the codes of ethics in various countries all over the world.

Social justice

Justice is an ethical value suggested in nursing literatures. Social justice has been defined by the traits which, in addition to consideration of individuals’ dignity and respect, focus on equal access to health services and the right of being fairly treated and cared free of economic, social, and cultural status.[ 9 , 10 , 15 , 16 , 20 , 21 , 23 ] Social justice had been the indication in most of the countries and had been defined as fair distribution of resources and provision of individuals’ equal treatment and care.

Verpeet (2003) stated that equality means access of all individuals to health services. She claims every individual in Belgium is supposed to have equal right of receiving equal nursing care.[ 10 ]

Altruism is a common nursing value in various countries. It has been defined with traits of consideration of human as the axis of attention and focus in nursing, helping others and provision of the utmost health and welfare for the clients, their families, and the society, selflessness, and self-devotion.[ 6 , 9 , 13 , 15 , 16 , 18 , 22 , 23 , 27 ] Therefore, altruism is defined as focusing on clients as a human and struggling to preserve their health and well-being. Pang (2009) debated that based on the principle of altruism, nurses should have spirit of selflessness and helpfulness toward others.[ 20 ]

Autonomy in decision making

Independency in decision making is a value suggested in some studies as a nursing ethical value. Nurses have defined its traits as having right of independency in decision making, right to accept or reject suggested treatments, interventions, or care. In addition, autonomy in decision making necessitates giving appropriate and adequate information to the clients and, if necessary, to their families.[ 13 , 15 , 23 ] So, autonomy in decision making occurs when nurses let patients be informed, free, and independent to decide on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention through giving them appropriate information.

Konishi (2009) debates that conscious adult patients should themselves decide. With regard to nursing profession, nurses should provide the patients with information, explain suggested interventions, and let them free to either accept or reject oncoming procedures so that they and their families can make a decision about their condition.[ 13 ]

Precision and accuracy in caring

Precise and accurate care has been indicated as a nursing ethical value. Based on this definition, this sort of care is a precise, safe, appropriate, multidimensional, and kind care given to the patients by nurses. This is also thoughtful, based on adequate clinical skills and nursing knowledge to fulfill clients’ needs, promote their health, and relieve their pain and suffering. It is also based on standards and results in patients’ safety and satisfaction.[ 6 , 9 , 15 , 23 , 24 , 27 ] In this regard, Shih (2009) states that holistic and appropriate professional care is to prevent diseases, promote health, and make the feeling of comfort and safety for the patients.[ 9 ]

Responsibility

Responsibility has been defined as a nursing ethical value. It is defined with traits of commitment, feeling responsible for the duties toward patients, and respecting the patients’ rights for decision making.[ 15 , 18 , 19 , 21 , 24 , 26 , 28 ] Based on this definition, nurses are responsible for giving evidence-based care, best clinical function, and applicable and valid research, and are accountable for their actions and duties. Verpeet (2005) argues that nurses are responsible for promotion of patients’ well-being, having a holistic approach toward them and completing their duties.[ 28 ]

Human relationship

Human relationship has been indicated as a nursing ethical value with traits of mutual respect, trust, and reliance which are accompanied by patients’ confidentiality and privacy. It can be verbal or non-verbal and defined through having honesty in words and practice, sympathy and mutual understanding, courtesy, and friendliness.[ 9 , 15 , 19 , 21 , 25 ]

In this regard, giving care is possible only through making humanistic, efficient, and effective relationship, a relationship based on mutual respect and understanding.

Individual and professional competency

Individual and professional competency as a nursing ethical value has been defined with traits of struggling to make nursing as a profession, feeling the need to acquire personal and professional competency so that nurses can grow and develop in the direction of advances and new technology. Personal competency and development of the nurses result in acquiring up-to-date knowledge and promotion of clinical skills and practical abilities, and the ability to give more holistic and comprehensive care. Promotion of personal and professional competency comes true when nurses make a background for the best patients’ care by trying to give evidence-based care, and their empowerment for participation in activities in relation with other health team members and interpersonal and inter-professional skills development.[ 7 , 9 , 15 , 20 , 24 ] Pang (2009) debates that participation in continuing professional development suggests that individuals should preserve their competency in their activities and participate in professional continuing education programs throughout their occupational life.[ 20 ]

Sympathy has been indicated as a nursing ethical value with traits of understanding patients’ and their families’ needs and giving care based on making a fair communication.[ 6 , 19 ] In some cultures, such as Japanese, nurses share patients’ physical and mental pains and sufferings.[ 19 ]

Trust has been indicated as a nursing ethical value and is defined by traits of honesty in words and practice. Nurses should gain patients’, their families,’ and society's trust through understanding patients’ situation and status and appropriate conformation with them.[ 15 , 20 , 23 , 24 ] Based on this definition, gaining clients’ trust and reliance comes true when nurses are honest in their words and practice, and gain individuals’ trust and reliance by doing their duties appropriately.

C ONCLUSION

This study showed that nursing ethical values in patients’ and clients’ care are similar in many cases due to a common core in humanistic and spiritual approach of nursing profession, which is taking care of a human. Values such as human dignity, kindness and sympathy, altruism, responsibility and commitment, justice and honesty, and personal and professional competency were similar in most of the cultures.

Despite the similarities in ethical and professional values among various countries, it is essential to detect and highlight these values in each country, for example, in Iran, with regard to the prevalent social, cultural, economic, and religious conditions. Detection and declaration of nursing ethical values in each country can be a valuable, scientific, valid, and essential document to design nursing codes of ethics. This search was used to prepare proposed code of ethics and clinical guidelines for Iranian nurses. Findings of this study search must be considered within its limitation. An attempt was made to conduct a search as vast as possible. However, it might be possible that we could not access to all articles available in the period of the search.

A CKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would also like to acknowledge the Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, for supporting this work.

Source of Support: Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

Conflict of Interest: None

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Professional identity in nursing practice

Pullen, Richard L. Jr. EdD, MSN, RN, CMSRN, CNE-cl, ANEF

Richard L. Pullen, Jr. , is a Professor of Nursing at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing in Lubbock, Tex., and a Nursing made Incredibly Easy! Editorial Board Member.

The author has disclosed no financial relationships related to this article.

Q: How do I develop a professional identity?

A: The National League for Nursing defines the attainment of a professional identity when a nurse internalizes and reflects on the core values of the nursing profession, engages in personal and professional development, and gains experience in the practice setting while growing in the profession. Nurses begin to develop a professional identity in nursing school by embracing the core values of nursing and through engagement with student peers, nursing faculty, and patients. Students integrate critical thinking and clinical reasoning with these core values as they begin to think, feel, and perform like a nurse. The nurse continues to nurture the development of a professional identity by engaging with other nurses in the practice setting following graduation from nursing school, including being mentored by experienced nurses and having a spirit of collegiality with the interprofessional team.

Nurses live their professional identity by embracing the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics and taking proactive leadership roles in evidence-based practice and research, quality improvement, informatics, patient-centered care, patient safety, cultural sensitivity, interprofessional collaboration that promotes effective communication, resource utilization, and environmental health. A professional identity entails having a commitment to lifelong learning, service to the community, and achievement of advanced degrees and certifications. Lastly, a professional image is an outward reflection of the deep, personal, internalized process of a nurse's professional identity.

Consider the following strategies to help you develop a professional identity to advance the nursing profession:

• Develop a personal philosophy of nursing as a foundation in your practice. How do you describe your beliefs about nursing, personhood, health, and environment from a global perspective? How do caring relationships promote health, healing, and effective communication and collaboration? How does patient-centered care ensure safe, quality patient care and promote the achievement of positive patient outcomes?
• Become actively involved in professional nursing organizations. These organizations communicate standards of clinical practice, education, administration, and research. Students may begin service in professional organizations in the National Student Nurses' Association while still in nursing school.
• Obtain advanced degrees and certifications based on your career goals. Competency requires ongoing learning in nursing practice. Nurses seeking leadership positions in healthcare organizations should explore achieving a minimum of a baccalaureate degree in nursing. A graduate degree in nursing is often desired. Nurses desiring a career as an NP or educator need to earn a master's or doctoral degree.
• Seek leadership opportunities. Whether at the bedside, in management positions, teaching in a healthcare organization or academic setting, or participating in committee or community activities, leaders embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Project a professional image. A professional image promotes a nurse's credibility, which begins with educational achievement, practice experience, and effective verbal and nonverbal communication skills. A welcoming countenance and demeanor, being kind, spending time with others, and actively listening promote relationship building.

The development of a professional identity is an evolving process that includes your knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values. Being a role model for nursing is the best way to project an image that reflects your professional identity.

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Professional Nursing Values: Taking a Closer Look at Core Values

Introduction

Conceptual explanation of each core value.

There are different reasons why different individual make a choice of taking up nursing as a lifetime career. These reasons may range from financial gains, personal, love for people, professional, or even for job security. Nevertheless, every individual who make that choice of becoming a nurse enters into a lifetime commitment regardless of his or her reasons of becoming a nurse. Consequently, every nurse commits to observe and adhere to the five core values necessary for taking up a career in nursing. These core values include: human dignity, altruism, integrity, social justice, and autonomy each of which is discussed below.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of The English Language (1992, p. 522), the term “dignity” is defined as the “quality or state of being worthy of esteem or respect” it logically follows that the phrase Human Dignity may be used to denote respect for the inherent worth and uniqueness of individuals and populations. When dignity correlates along with the word “human,” it depicts the concept that each individual man, women, or child (the person) of any race, culture, or ethnic background deserves unconditional respect. The value of human dignity is the ability to have mutual respect for one another as we live together in this world. One would want to remember the “Golden Rule” of treating others as you would want to be treated.

The concept of Altruism is used to depict a genuine concern for the welfare and well-being of others. As defined under the American Dictionary of The English Language, 1992, p. 56 altruism is an unselfish concern for the welfare of others. According to the American Nurses Association (2010), altruism is a core value of every nursing response to provide care to all who are in need regardless of their culture, social, or economic standing” (The American Nurses Association, 2010, p.5).

Altruism is therefore a commitment of every nurse to provide services to others in a selfless way even if it means risking their own safety and health. The welfare of the patient comes first in this line of duty. Chitty & Black (2011) contend that, “practitioners are motivated by service or altruism and consider their work meaningful as oppose to the money made” (Chitty & Black, 2011, p. 66-67). It therefore, follows that health care professionals such as nurses must be dedicated to the ideal of “altruism” to be able to work with the public and the sick patients (some contagious).

Another core value in nursing is the aspect of Integrity. This means acting in accordance with an appropriate code of ethics and accepted standards of practice. The American Heritage Dictionary (1992) defines integrity as the “steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code” (The American Heritage Dictionary of The English Language, 1992, p. 938). Laabs (2011) elaborates that having moral integrity embodies characteristics such as: honesty, trustworthiness, and doing the right thing even when others disagree (Laabs, 2011, p. 433). In addition, a person with integrity “always tries their best to do the right thing, it is not always easy, especially when pressed by time, intimidated by others, not supported in their beliefs, …admitting when one has made a mistake, or has not lived up to one’s moral code and, then doing what one can to make amends” (Laabs, 2011, p. 433).

To put it in a simple way, integrity as a core value of nursing requires that nurses must act and behave ethically, fairly, and honestly in conducting the highest standards of professionalism at all times. Even more important, a nurse commented that, “a person with [moral integrity] will not take short-cuts just because no one else is watching” (Laabs, 2011, p. 434).

The fourth core value of nursing is Autonomy. This term basically means the right to self-determination. The word autonomy is derived from a Greek word Autonomia, which means the condition or quality of being autonomous; independence” (The American Heritage Dictionary of The English Language, 1992, p. 126). According to Varjus, et al. (2011), autonomy may be defined as: The ability to direct one’s own life and to make one’s own decisions… in referring to the profession of nursing, it means the privilege of self-governance and referring to the individual nurses, it means the ability of nurses to make some decisions within their own profession and their right and responsibility to act accordingly to shared standards of that profession.

In addition, Chitty & Black (2011) emphasizes that nursing actions are independent but physicians strongly makes the decisions and supervises many of the nursing activities while nurse practice acts in many states have a role in determining nurses’ actions when authorized by supervising physicians or hospital protocols

Social Justice is the fifth core value in the nursing profession. It means the act of upholding moral, legal, and humanistic principles” Social means “living together in communities, relating to communal living, or relating to society” (The American Heritage Dictionary of The English Language, 1992, p. 1710). Justice on the other hand means upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or the law (The American Heritage Dictionary of The English Language, 1992, p. 978). In short, social justice is about equality and fairness between human beings.

In a personal communication, January 24, 2012 by Stone a professor at Presbyterian School of Nursing, stated that “as nurses, we are the advocate (fight for patients’ rights, freedom of choice, and equality) for our patients; therefore we question doctors, nurse practitioners, and others about medication dosages etc. when it doesn’t seem right…we speak out for the patients at the bedside when they cannot speak for themselves.” In all, we would build a stronger community and world by “upholding moral, legal, and humanistic principles”.

It therefore goes without saying that at all times; nurses must strive to uphold the aforementioned five core values regardless of the circumstance that they may be faced with. In so doing nurses can be able to treat everyone equally and also be able to put the interest of other before his or hers. This is because the nursing profession is a lifetime commitment to serve others, and all patients as well as their loved ones hold on the commitment of the nurses to adhere to these values. Failure to uphold these values would then result to the public losing faith in the system of healthcare.

Conceptual Explanation of Additional Student Selected Professional Values

It is worth mentioning that nursing is a caring profession. This profession emphasis ices the importance of the caring as it encompasses the connection of nurses with empathy for people. The professional value of caring amongst nurses can only be achieved through the aptitude of nurses to uphold the five core values in the nursing profession; these core values include autonomy, altruism, human dignity, social justice, and integrity. It therefore follows that caring professional nurses have to integrate the aforementioned core values in their day-to-day clinical practice.

Caring as a foundation for relationship is one of the most important professional value as a novice student and as an experienced nurse. Caring is defined as “the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something” (Oxford Dictionaries, 2012). Furthermore, Suliman, et al. (2009) describes caring as a foundation for relationship upon using Watson’s theory on human caring relationships in suggesting that caring is centered on helping the patient in achieving peace within in the mind, body, soul, and through a transpersonal caring relationship.

As Chitty & Black (2011) elaborates on caring, they state that “nurses are encouraged to share their genuine selves with patients while the patients’ spiritual strength is recognized, supported, and encouraged…which leads to development of trusting and accepting relationships which feelings are shared and confidence is inspired ” (Chitty & Black, 2011, p. 309). In all, caring is one of the significant reasons why novice students choose nursing as a career path.

According to Sulimen et al. (2009), there are several caring behaviors which nurses should observe at all times. These behaviors include: appreciating the patient as human beings, showing respect for the patient, being sensitive to the patient, talking with the patient, treating information confidentially, treating patient as an individual, and listening attentively to the patient. (Sulimen et al., 2009, p. 294).

Public Figures Exemplifying Core Values

A public figure who exemplifies these core values of altruism, autonomy, human dignity, integrity, and social justice would be my local pharmacist who dispenses prescription medications to patients. Pharmacists aid the general public in answering questions to medication dosages, over the counter products, and to promote health. Pharmacists work in the healthcare field as well and they collaborate with doctors, nurse practitioners, and other health interdisciplinary for the well-being of the patients.

In comparison with the health profession of nurses, the pharmacist profession embodies their own values and beliefs with similar core values that were established in 1852 (founded by the American Pharmaceutical Association). The American Pharmacist Association (APhA), which is the first and largest association of pharmacist in the United States (American Pharmacists Association, 2012). It is worth noting that even the American pharmacists have some code of ethics which they ought to uphold at all times and they are set out under their preamble. Some of these values include inter alia respect of the relationship between the pharmacist and the patient; the pharmacist must also ensure that patients get the right medication, uphold their trust, and committed to safeguard the welfare of the patients.

• The pharmacist must also ensure that patients get the right medication, uphold their trust, and committed to safeguard the welfare of the patients.
• The pharmacists should also observe patient pharmacist confidentiality
• He must also uphold the dignity and autonomy of the patients.
• In his professional relationship a pharmacist should uphold the core values of integrity as well as honesty.
• Professional proficiency must also be observed at all times.
• They should also show respect to the abilities and values of other health practitioners and fellow pharmacist.
• They must be ready to sever all persons in need of their services at all times
• It is the responsibility of every pharmacist to uphold social justice in his professional services.

The American Pharmacists Association’s (APhA) is very similar to the American Nurse Association’s (ANA) core values of nursing. There are several professional core values that are shared by both the nursing and pharmacists professions such as altruism, autonomy, human dignity, integrity, and social justice. Both work in the health care industry and they work to promote health and well-being of the patient. Often a time, they collaborate with each other to bring all of these five core values together as one.

Life Experience of Core Values (Include Cultural Impact Perceptions)

Autonomy– “the right to self-determination”.

Life experiences of autonomy, as a teenager is a duty and not an option in my culture, especially being the eldest girl. I had the responsibility of making decisions on my own, monitoring my siblings as they do their homework, bathing them, and cooking for them. Being the eldest amongst my siblings, every decision made is always looked at with consequences; therefore, one would have to make decisions wisely. As a daughter, one would have to take care of the younger siblings and to help clean and cook around the house. Housekeeping chores are given to the oldest and to the girls. Boys are considered much more important in the family and so they do not have to do anything.

Additionally, in the Hmong culture, we emphasize a more collective approach to decision making which involves the eldest to the extended family members. For instance, if my parents wanted a divorce, both would have to consult the elders to come together and talk about issues. Decision making in this situation is based on the elder’s ruling. The majority of elders will the parties to reconcile and eliminate the chances of a divorce. In all, autonomy in the Hmong ethnic background particularly in decision making is complicated especially among the young generation which is accustomed to the Western’s way of life and decision makings.

Human Dignity — “respect for the inherent worth and uniqueness of individual care”

There are instances where life experience of human dignity would arise such as an opportunity to feed the poor through a church program. In such instances, the Hmong United Methodist Church youth members have the opportunity to make sandwiches and to feed the less fortunate at the Uptown Shelter. This life experience was an eye-opener for me as a young adult. The act of feeding the poor and to serve those in need is an experience that is geared toward achieving human dignity across all social and cultural status and respect for one another regardless of race, color, and sex. In the end, we are all human beings in search of something-love, respect, shelter, self-esteem (using Maslow’s Basic needs).

Altruism–“a concern for the welfare and well-being of others”

The aspect of altruism cut across all aspects of human life from work place, school, or even in the family. In the Hmong culture, the oldest son in the family is the one who is responsible for looking after the elderly parents but since we live in American where the cultural setting is different, some of these traditional practices are not strictly followed. That notwithstanding the Hmong culture emphasizes the responsibility of the children to their parent or the elderly in the society which is clear indication altruism.

Consequently, care and respect for the elders by the young generation is highly emphasized and practiced in the Hmong culture. Altruism may also be reflected through voluntary work such teaching young children in their elementary education. My work experiences include working as a pharmacy technician, phlebotomist, nursing assistant, and a nursing student (clinical) at Presbyterian School of Nursing. All of the above work experiences involve the core value of altruism.

Clinical Examples of Core Values

Human dignity.

An example of human dignity in nursing is treating all persons with equal respect and giving them adequate care regardless of their social status, race, sex, color or religious and political affiliations. All patients must be treated as one would treat his or her loved ones. Another example of this core value is knocking on the patient’s door before entering the patient’s room. Even when they are not well or cannot answer, one should preserve the patient’s dignity. We have to respect our patient all the time because the space has become their home or their environment.

A clinical example of altruism as a core value of nursing may include nurses putting themselves in the way of patients who may be physically aggressive for purposes of safeguarding the wellbeing and safety of other staff and other patients. It can be also demonstrated through taking care of patients with contagious diseases such as TB, MRSA and others diseases like HIV. In addition, this value may be demonstrated through checking the safety of all patients when the nurse clocks in on duty. The student nurse should make sure that the bed is in the lowest position with the call bell at the patient’s side. The student nurse will evaluate the room to see if there are rugs or clutter in the room to prevent falls or injuries. These are an example of altruism because the patient’s welfare and safety is the priority of the student nurse when she starts her shift for the day.

Some clinical example of integrity in the clinical setting is abiding by the hospital protocols and OSHA regulations. As a student nurse, one would want to follow aseptic technique when inserting a Foley Catheter even when the instructor is not around. A student nurse should wash his or her hands before getting into contact with any patient. This is upholding the core value of integrity. Taking care of patients belonging without misplacing or destroying them is also another clinical example of integrity in the nursing profession.

Nurses have the responsibility to give their patients all the facts and consequences of their health choices and give them the opportunity to decide the procedure they would want to take. This is an indication of autonomy in the nursing profession. As a student nurse in clinical, we are not licensed yet but we are allowed to have some decision making in the order of selecting patients in doing a health assessment and checking patient vitals. One could do it in any order but in a systematic way and chart it in the computer system so that the registered nurse could administer medications to patients accordingly.

Social Justice

An example of this core value in clinical would be when a student nurse stands up for a patient who may not be able to speak fluent in English. That patient may require a translator while the doctor is making his rounds to the unit. As a student nurse, one should immediately call to see if there is a translator available for the next doctor round before the patient is discharge. It is therefore the responsibility of the nurse to arrange for a translator to facilitate decrease the frustration of language barrier and increase a better understanding of the patient as a whole (culturally). Language barrier should therefore not be a reason to deny a patient his or her right to quality health care and that is where the exercise of the core value of social justice comes into play.

Summary and Reflection

Each person in the nursing program has various reasons of becoming a nurse. Some examples such as personal, job security, professional education (science), or just love to be around people. Each one of us has decided to take on this life long journey. In an effort to achieve the mission and vision of the nursing profession, every nurse commits to observe and adhere to the five core values necessary for taking up a career in nursing.

These core values include human dignity, altruism, integrity, social justice, and autonomy. Even though there are many other values that ought to be observed in the nursing profession, the aforementioned values form the basis of this profession and they should be upheld at all time regardless of the circumstances. Indeed, these core values help to guide novice students and practitioners in the nursing profession. It should also be noted that culture has a vital role to play in evaluating personal values and trying to reflect on the five core values of this paper.

The nursing career is a demanding profession and it is forever changing in a time of new technologies, but the core values of altruism, autonomy, caring, human dignity, integrity, and social justice will stand firm. These values cannot be separated from a truly professional nurse.

American heritage dictionary of the English language. (1992). Altruism. Social justice, human dignity, integrity, and autonomy. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

American Nurses Association. (2010). Nursing’s social policy statement: The essence of the profession. Silver Spring, MD: Nursebooks. Web.

American Pharmacists Association. (2012). Code of ethics for pharmacist.  Web.

Chitty, K., & Black, B., (2011). Professional nursing: Concepts and challenges . St. Louis, MO: Saunders/Elsevier.

Laabs, C., (2011). Perceptions of moral integrity: Contradictions in need of explanation.  Nursing Ethics, 18(3), 431-440. Web.

Oxford dictionaries. (2012). “ Caring.” Oxford University Press. Web.

Suliman, W., et al., (2009). Applying Watson’s Nursing Theory to Assess Patient Perceptions of Being Cared for in a Multicultural Environment. Journal of Nursing Research (Taiwan Nurses Association), 17(4), 293-300.

Varjus, S., et al., (2011). Professional autonomy of nurses in hospital settings-a review of the literature. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 25(1), 201-207. Web.

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What Are the Qualities of a Good Nurse?

4 min read • June, 08 2023

If you're considering a career in nursing and have wondered what the qualities of a good nurse are, you're probably already displaying some of these essential nursing characteristics. Whether you're entering the nursing field or are a seasoned nurse, taking the time to understand nursing strengths demonstrates insight and a desire for ongoing self-improvement.

You might assume those entering the nursing field must have the qualities of a good nurse, but that's not always the case. Some nurses pursue a career in this profession because it's lucrative and offers many growth opportunities. They then end up dissatisfied with their career choice or  suffer from burnout  when they realize they don't possess the characteristics needed to succeed in nursing.

What Makes a Good Nurse?

There are many ways to define a good nurse. In general, it means bringing your best qualities to work to promote positive patient outcomes and striving to strengthen the nursing profession. While working as an essential member of a health care team, you seek solutions to improve patient care and advocacy. And certain personality traits and characteristics of a nurse go a long way in helping you succeed in the nursing profession.

Essential Qualities of a Nurse

• Communication skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills are crucial areas of strength for nurses. Practicing active listening and being aware of nonverbal cues help you understand how communication approaches may differ. Clear communication and cultural awareness reduce miscommunication and medical errors and enable patients to make informed decisions about their care.
• Empathy and compassion: Although these characteristics often go hand and hand and are both qualities of a good nurse, they aren't the same. Empathy allows you to have a patient-centered approach to caregiving by relating to what they're experiencing. Compassion fuels your desire to help ease the pain and suffering of others. These two skills contribute to inspiring trust in your patient relationships.
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills: Nurses often work autonomously under pressure and must make decisions using critical thinking to put their knowledge into practice. A solid analytical skill set lets you collect information, evaluate the facts, and develop a rational conclusion to improve patient outcomes.
• Attention to detail: Mistakes in nursing can have severe consequences, and caring for multiple patients increases the risk of human error. That could cause you to miss changes in a patient's condition if you don't understand the importance of minor details. Excellent  time management skills  and the ability to balance competing priorities can help you hone this skill.
• Integrity and advocacy: Core nursing strengths include a strong moral compass while providing care with integrity, and a strong focus on  patient advocacy . Patients are often vulnerable and trust nurses to be honest and make decisions with their best interests in mind.
• Willingness to learn: Health care is constantly changing, so you must be willing to continue to improve and expand upon your nursing qualifications and skills. Take advantage of education and in-services offered by your employer, review and implement  evidence-based nursing practice , participate in  nurse mentorship programs ,  join nursing associations , and pursue  continuing education . These are all effective ways to stay current in nursing practice and continue to thrive.

Other sought-after personality traits of a nurse include:

• Being even-tempered, hardworking, and flexible
• Displaying a sense of humor
• Practicing self-care
• Demonstrating leadership skills

How to Develop the Qualities of a Good Nurse

Reviewing the qualities of a good nurse and nurturing those virtues within your nursing practice can help you provide effective care that contributes to your professional growth.

If you want more clarification about the primary goals and values of the nursing profession, the American Nurses Association (ANA)  Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements  is an excellent resource regarding ethical principles.

Additional ways to nurture strong qualities include:

• Working with a nurse mentor
• Surrounding yourself with nurses who hold the qualities you wish to develop
• Accept and learn from constructive criticism regarding your professional practice
• Pursue  continuing education
• Work as a team with your peers to help strengthen the nursing profession
• Practice how to identify and address issues affecting patient and staff safety

Would I Be a Good Nurse?

If you’re a  student nurse  or considering a  career in nursing , understanding the desired characteristics of a nurse can help you determine how to be a good nurse. It also allows the seasoned nurse to assess their own nursing strengths and weaknesses. Health care organizations look for these traits when seeking quality nurses. Regardless of your level of experience, cultivate the positive qualities of a good nurse to get recognized by prospective employers.

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• Research article
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• Published: 05 July 2019

The importance of professional values from nursing students’ perspective

• Batool Poorchangizi 1 ,
• Fariba Borhani 2 ,
• Abbas Abbaszadeh 3 ,
• Moghaddameh Mirzaee 4 &
• Jamileh Farokhzadian 5  

BMC Nursing volume  18 , Article number:  26 ( 2019 ) Cite this article

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Professional values of nursing students may be changed considerably by curricula. This highlights the importance of the integration of professional values into nursing students’ curricula. The present study aimed to investigate the importance of professional values from nursing students’ perspective.

This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Data were gathered by using a two-section questionnaire consisting of demographic data and Nursing Professional Values Scale-Revised (NPVS-R). By using the stratified random sampling method, 100 nursing students were included in the study.

Results showed that the mean score of the students’ professional values was at high level of importance (101.79  ±  12.42). The most important values identified by the students were “maintaining confidentiality of patients” and “safeguarding patients’ right to privacy”. The values with less importance to the students were “participating in public policy decisions affecting distribution of resources” and “participating in peer review”. The professional value score had a statistically significant relationship with the students’ grade point average ( P  < 0.05).

Conclusions

In light of the low importance of some values for nursing students, additional strategies may be necessary to comprehensively institutionalize professional values in nursing students.

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Introduction

Values are goals and beliefs that establish a behavior and provide a basis for decision making [ 1 ]. In a profession, values are standards for action that are preferred by experts and professional groups and establish frameworks for evaluating behavior [ 2 ]. Nursing is a profession rooted in professional ethics and ethical values, and nursing performance is based on such values. Core values of nursing include altruism, autonomy, human dignity, integrity, honesty and social justice [ 3 ]. The core ethical values are generally shared within the global community, and they are a reflection of the human and spiritual approach to the nursing profession. However, the values in the care of patients are affected by cultural, social, economic, and religious conditions dominating the community, making it essential to identify such values in each country [ 4 ].

Professional values are demonstrated in ethical codes [ 5 ]. In fact, ethical codes clarify nursing profession practices, the quality of professional care, and professional norms [ 2 ]. Advances in technology and expansion of nursing roles have provoked complex ethical dilemmas for nurses. Such dilemmas, if not dealt with properly, negatively affect the ability of novice nurses to make clinical decisions [ 6 ]. With the ever-increasing number and complexity of ethical dilemmas in care settings, promotion of professional values has become more crucial in nursing education. The acquisition and internalization of values are at the center of promoting the nursing profession [ 2 ]. When values are internalized, they will become the standards in practice and guide behavior [ 7 ]. Values can be taught, modified and promoted directly or indirectly through education [ 8 ]. Each student enters the nursing school with a set of values that might be changed during the socialization process [ 9 ]. Purposeful integration of professional values in nursing education is essential to guaranteeing the future of nursing [ 10 , 11 ].

One of the significant consequences of teaching ethics and professional values to students is increasing their capacity for autonomous ethical decision-making [ 12 ]. Nursing students acquire professional values initially through the teaching of their school educators and the socialization process. Professional socialization is the method of developing the values, beliefs, and behaviors of a profession [ 13 ]. In their study, Seda and Sleem reported a significant relationship between professional socialization of students and improvement of professional values [ 9 ]. Through professional socialization, which results in the complete acquisition and internalization of values, nursing students should acquire necessary skills and knowledge in cognitive, emotional, and practical dimensions. Presently, however, less attention is paid to the emotional dimension in the formation of values compared to the other two [ 14 ]. In order to develop a value system, individuals should reach the fourth or fifth level of learning of Bloom’s affective domain, i.e. organization and internalization of values. At this level, stabilization of values requires passage of time [ 15 ].

Studies have shown that education causes differences in the formation of professional values, and that nursing educators have significant influence on the stimulation of professional values [ 8 , 14 , 16 , 17 ]. Wehrwein reported that education related to ethics was effective when students’ awareness of ethical issues increased along with the application of values in the workplace. In addition, the ability to make ethical decisions was reported to be stronger in students who had passed an ethics course compared to those who had not [ 18 ]. Therefore, nursing educators play a key role in determining the future way in which nurses grow professionally and are prepared to confront new, unavoidable challenges [ 9 ].

Professors and educators, both in clinical settings and at each stage of education, have the role of facilitator in developing students’ perception of the nursing profession and the nurse’s role. Students may increase their commitment to professional values directly through role playing and indirectly through observing behaviors related to professional values [ 14 ]. Nursing educators are effective role models because of their clinical skills, sense of responsibility, professional commitment, and personal characteristics such as kindness, flexibility, and honesty. Nursing educators enhance creative learning by encouraging critical thinking and decision-making, establishing a supportive learning environment, having technical and ethical knowledge, and providing opportunities for fair evaluation and feedback. Nursing educators should teach nursing students effective strategies to confront ethical dilemmas [ 12 ].

Students’ perspectives on professional values influence their approach to applying professional values in their future profession [ 14 , 15 , 19 , 20 ]. Nursing educators need additional awareness of nursing students’ perspectives on importance of professional values as a basis to use more effective methods for applying professional values. Therefore, nursing educators are able to educate graduates who are ready for decision-making and can effectively deal with daily ethical challenges. Nursing educators’ and students’ awareness of professional nursing values is important for preparing nurses to provide care of patients in an ethical and professional manner [ 6 ]. Researchers have found insufficient information about nursing students’ professional values in Iran. Because of the potential impact of cultures and clinical environments on professional values, the present study aimed to examine the importance of professional values from nursing students’ perspective.

Study design and setting

This cross-sectional study was performed from February to May 2016 at the Razi Nursing and Midwifery School affiliated with the Kerman University of Medical Sciences (KUMS), in Kerman, Iran. This study is a part of a larger study. The results of the first part was published in previous study [ 21 ].

The participants included all undergraduate nursing students who were studying at the time of data collection ( n  = 177). The sample size ( n  = 106) was determined based on the Cochran formula ( d  = 0.06, p  = 0.05). Inclusion criteria were undergraduate nursing students in the fourth, sixth, and eighth semesters without official work experience in hospitals. Submitting an incomplete questionnaire was considered an exclusion criterion. The participants were selected using a stratified random sampling based on the proportion of students in each semester. Therefore, among the total of 50, 62, and 65 students in the three semesters, 30, 37, and 39 students were enrolled, respectively. Finally, of the remaining 106 students, 100 students completed the questionnaires, but six students did not return the questionnaires. Thus, the final sample consisted of 100 students (with the response rate of 94.34%).

A two-section questionnaire was used for data collection. The students’ demographic data including age, grade point average (GPA: 17–20 (level A), 13–16 (level B) and ≤ 12 (level C)), ethnicity, gender, marital status, economic status of family, educational semester, and participation in professional ethical training courses was collected by the first section. The second section was Weis and Schank’s Nursing Professional Values Scale-Revised (NPVS-R). The NPVS-R is a potentially useful instrument for measuring professional nursing values. In developing the professional values scale, Weis and Schank used the ANA Code of Ethics as well as the studies on nursing values and their promotion among nurses [ 2 ].

We used the Persian version of the NPVS-R in this study. The validity of the translated questionnaire was confirmed using face and content validity as well as expert opinion. Reliability of the NPVS-R was reported to be 0.91 using Cronbach’s alpha [ 22 ]. To establish reliability of the NPVS-R in Persian, a pilot study was conducted with 20 nursing students, which resulted in a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.90.

The NPVS-R includes 26 items with a Likert-scale format in five dimensions: 1) trust: 5 items, 2) justice: 3 items, 3) professionalism: 4 items, 4) activism: 5 items, and 5) caring: 9 items. The trust dimension reflects the nurse’s duty (the value of veracity) to patients. The justice dimension deals with patients as noted in statements reflecting equality and diversity issues. The professionalism dimension reflects the promotion of nursing competence, self-evaluation and reflection, and seeking professional growth. The activism dimension reflects participation in professional activities and solutions to professional problems. The caring dimension reflects respect for patients and protection of patient rights.

The participants specified the importance of each item on a Likert 5-point scale ranging from 1 to 5 with 1 = not important, 2 = somewhat important, 3 = important, 4 = very important, and 5 = the most important. The possible range of scores is 26 to 130 [ 2 ]. In this study, the scores below 43, scores between 43 and 86, and those above 86 were considered low importance, moderate, and high importance, respectively. A higher score indicates that professional values are very important, and that nurses are more oriented toward stronger professional values.

Data collection

The first researcher distributed the questionnaires among the participants and explained the study objectives. The researcher also explained to the participants how to fill out the questionnaires and asked them to specify the importance of professional values. In order to eliminate any ambiguity regarding questionnaire items, necessary explanations were provided. The researcher collected the questionnaires while maintaining anonymity and confidentiality of the data.

Statistical analysis

Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent samples, t- test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Mann-Whitney, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient) were used. SPSS software version 19 was used for data analysis and level of significance was considered p  ≤ 0.05.

Ethical considerations

First, the study was approved by the ethics committee affiliated to the Kerman University of Medical Sciences (No code: 1394.238). Then, official permission for collecting data was obtained from the Razi Nursing and Midwifery School. Prior to distributing the questionnaire, the researcher guaranteed the confidentiality and anonymity of the questionnaires. The students’ informed consent was implied from returning completed questionnaires.

The results showed that the students’ mean age was) 21.9 ± 1.26 (and GPA was at B level (16.20 ± 1.20). Most of the students were female (75%), single (67%), and Iranian (97%). Around 37% of the students were in the eighth semester, and around 37.6% of the students had participated in professional ethical training courses (Table  1 ).

The high mean score of the professional values of the nursing students indicated high awareness and perception of the importance of professional values from the students’ perspective. The most important values as identified by higher mean scores were respectively as follows: “maintaining confidentiality of patients”, “safeguarding patients’ right to privacy”, “assuming responsibility for meeting health needs of the culturally diverse population”, and “maintaining competency in area of practice”. The values with lower mean scores were “participating in public policy decisions affecting distribution of resources”, “participating in peer review”, “recognizing role of professional nursing associations in shaping healthcare policy” and “participating in nursing research and/or implementing research findings appropriate to practice”, respectively (Table  2 ).

The results of the Pearson’s correlation coefficient test indicated that there was no significant relationship between professional values and age ( r  = 0.03, p  = 0.47), while there was a significant relationship between professional values and the GPA ( r  = 0.29, p  = 0.003). This revealed that the students with higher GPA had higher scores in professional values. There was no significant difference in the students’ professional values based on different educational semesters ( F  = 0.29, p  = 0.74). In addition, there were no significant differences in professional values based on the other demographic variables such as gender, marital status, ethnicity, and participation in professional ethical training courses (p  > 0.05) (Table 1 ).

The present study was conducted to examine the importance of professional values from nursing students’ perspectives. The results showed a high total score with regard to the importance of professional values. These findings are in agreement with the findings of the studies conducted in the United States [ 15 , 23 ], Taiwan [ 24 ], Korea [ 25 ], and Iran [ 21 ]. Results of these studies highlighted that instructors and nursing trainers were seen as role models by students.

In this study, the most important nursing professional values were “maintaining confidentiality of patients”, “safeguarding patients’ right to privacy”, “responsibility for meeting health needs of the culturally diverse population”, and “maintaining competency in area of practice”. The results of this study are in agreement with the results of the studies conducted by Lin et al. [ 19 ], Clark [ 15 ], Fisher [ 23 ], and Leners et al. [ 8 ], who identified these values as the most important values. One possible reason for the consistency between the results of this study and those of the other studies may be that these values are among the main values in the nursing profession and are closely associated with it. Leners et al. reported that maintaining competency in area of practice, accepting responsibility and accountability for own practice, and safeguarding patients’ right to privacy were values prioritized by students. Since these values are associated with the direct care of patients and given that students complete their clinical practices under supervision of nurses, students may learn the importance of these values through role modeling and application in clinical settings [ 8 ].

In this study, the least important values from the students’ perspective were “participating in public policy decisions affecting distribution of resources”, “participating in peer review”, “recognizing role of professional nursing associations in shaping healthcare policy”, and “participating in nursing research and/or implementing research findings appropriate to practice” . The results of this research are also in agreement with the results of the studies conducted by Lin et al. [ 19 ], Clark [ 15 ], Fisher [ 23 ], and Leners et al. [ 8 ]. A multitude of factors may have contributed to the lower importance placed on these values; some causes might be less information about the importance of these values in the development of the profession, low motivation, insufficient affirmation, and low encouragement by nursing educators.

The reason for the low importance placed on the values such as “participating in nursing research and/or implementing research findings appropriate to practice” might be the fact that nursing students do not acquire necessary skills (such as information literacy skills) to apply in evidence-based practices during their academic days [ 26 , 27 ]. Another reason for the low importance of the above-mentioned values might be graduate education programs; undergraduate students focus on the rules of clinical practice because they are novices. As they become more competent and eventually experts, the ranking of the values is likely to change.

Concerning the lower importance of the “recognizing role of professional nursing associations in shaping healthcare policy” value, Esmaeili et al. reported the following items as causes for reduction of participation in such associations: long working hours, lack of awareness about the associations’ objectives and activities, insufficiency of time, and lack of support from hospitals to play active roles in associations. Moreover, the inactivity of members in such associations and the weak relationship among these associations were other barriers confronted by such associations in Iran [ 28 ]. In addition, one other reason might be that nursing educators themselves do not participate in professional nursing associations because of high workloads and limited time. Professional nursing associations play major roles in promoting nursing authority and professional identity. Consequently, understanding and valuing the importance of participation in professional associations may require emphasis as an important professional value.

Regarding the low importance of values such as “participating in peer review” and “participating in public policy decisions affecting distribution of resources”, it can be mentioned that these activities are part of the manager’s duties, and that the nurses are not involved in peer evaluation and policy decisions.

In this study, a significant relationship was found between the GPA and scores of professional values. Students with high GPA Probably have the necessary scientific competency in their professional performance, which may result in giving higher importance to professional values as a significant index of professional competence. Lechner et al. emphasized that academic environments appear to elicit and reinforce values such as developing one’s capacities and pursuing one’s interests [ 29 ].

In this study, although no significant difference was found between educational semester and the students’ scores of professional values, the highest score was related to the sixth semester whereas the lowest score was related to the fourth semester. The studies conducted by Rassin [ 16 ] and Clark [ 15 ] had results similar to those of this study, with no difference found between total scores of professional values of students in different semesters of their nursing education. However, several studies [ 8 , 14 , 25 ] found significant differences between total scores of professional values of students in different semesters. It is difficult to compare these differences due to the use of different instruments to measure professional values, differences in nursing education curricula and environments, and differences in study designs. In line with the results found on the association between academic year and education with professional values, researchers reported in several studies that education had a positive effect on professional values, and nursing students’ education experience increased total scores of professional values in a positive direction from entry into school until graduation [ 8 , 14 , 19 ]. In their study, Weis and Shank concluded that higher focus on curricula of junior and senior students could change some professional values, indicating that time spent in school was associated with change in values [ 30 ].

The study had three limitations. First, the assessment of the students’ perspectives on professional values was limited only in the school affiliated with the KUMS in southern Iran, which may limit generalization of these findings. The second limitation was the translation of the NPVS-R into Persian. Cultural and language differences may have affected the meaning of the terms literally and in the context of nursing education in Iran. Third, this study did not assess how the students learned professional values. Similarly, we did not know to what extent students had these values prior to entering nursing education and we did not collect information on these two items; thus, we did not highly emphasize the role of nurse educators in this study. It is suggested that further studies with more accurate instruments are conducted in other nursing schools with different cultural and environmental conditions might lead to comprehensive strategies for internalizing professional values of nursing students.

Implications for nursing

Nursing educators can primarily facilitate professional values by urging students to participate both in research studies on the topic and in nursing education. Periodic classes and seminars about professionalism should be presented by clinical tutors and school educators, who play important roles as behavioral models for their students. It is also recommended to conduct studies to investigate the impact of educational environments and university educators as role models for students on advancement of professional values in students.

The study showed high mean total of professional values from the nursing students’ perspective. However, some professional values such as participating in public policy decisions and participating in nursing researches were less important. This shows low awareness about these values or educators’ insufficient emphasis on them, time limitations to promote these values, and negative attitudes of students toward these values. As future nurses, nursing students should be able to apply professional values in making decisions when confronted with the emerging ethical challenges in the healthcare area. This preparation should be provided for students by educators and professors during their professional socialization process in schools. The findings suggest that many of the values were similarly important in other countries, which can be a reflection of the globalization process in the nursing profession and the presence of professional values at the root of the discipline. However, strategies should be developed to improve weaknesses of nursing students in the professional values adapted to cultural, social, and religious conditions prevailing in the societies, faculties, schools, and hospitals.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because this study is part of a larger study. This datasets are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Grade point average

Nursing Professional Values Scale-Revised

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Acknowledgements

The researchers appreciate all nursing students who gave their time so generously in order to participate in the study.

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Batool Poorchangizi

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Fariba Borhani

Bam University of Medical Sciences, Bam, Iran

Abbas Abbaszadeh

Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

Moghaddameh Mirzaee

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BP, FB, AA, and JF contributed to conceiving and designing the research. The data were collected, analyzed, and interpreted by BP, MM, FB, and JF. BP, FB JF, AA, and MM contributed equally in writing the manuscript and approved the final manuscript.

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Poorchangizi, B., Borhani, F., Abbaszadeh, A. et al. The importance of professional values from nursing students’ perspective. BMC Nurs 18 , 26 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-019-0351-1

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What is the Nursing Code of Ethics?

• 4 Ethical Principles in Nursing

Nursing Code of Ethics Interpretive Statements

Making ethical decisions as a nurse, history of the nursing code of ethics, how nurses use the nursing code of ethics.

According to the American Nurses Association (ANA) , the nursing code of ethics is a guide for “carrying out nursing responsibilities in a manner consistent with quality in nursing care and the ethical obligations of the profession.”

Ethics, in general, are the moral principles that dictate how a person will conduct themselves. Ethical values are essential for ALL healthcare workers, but ethical principles in nursing are particularly important given their role as caregivers.

There are 4 main principles of the nursing code of ethics:

• Beneficence
• Non-maleficence

These principles are ideally what every nurse should be aware of in their daily nursing practice. While ethical principles are sometimes confusing and often taught briefly during undergraduate nursing -- they should be constants in nursing practice in order to provide the best, safest, and most humane care to all patients.

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4 Ethical Principles in Nursing 

1. autonomy .

Autonomy in nursing is recognizing each individual patient’s right to self-determination and decision-making. As patient advocates, it is imperative that nurses ensure that patients receive all medical information, education, and options in order to choose the option that is best for them. This includes all potential risks, benefits, and complications to make well-informed decisions. 

Once the patient has all the relevant information, the medical and nursing team can make a plan of care in compliance with the medical wishes of the patient. 

It is important that nurses support the patient in their medical wishes and ensure that the medical team is remembering those wishes. Sometimes, nurses will need to continue to advocate for a patient despite the wishes being verbalized because the medical team might not agree with those wishes.

Many factors may influence a patient's acceptance or refusal of medical treatment, such as culture, age, gender, sexual orientation, general health, and social support system.

2. Beneficence

Beneficence in nursing is acting for the good and welfare of others and including such attributes as kindness and charity. The American Nurses Association defines this as “actions guided by compassion.”

Justice is that there should be an element of fairness in all medical and nursing decisions and care. Nurses must care for all patients with the same level of fairness despite the individual's financial abilities, race, religion, gender, and/or sexual orientation. 

An example of this is when working at a free flu clinic or diabetes screening clinic. These are open to all individuals in the community regardless of the previously mentioned factors.

4. Nonmaleficence 

Nonmaleficence is to do no harm. This is the most well-known of the main principles of nursing ethics. More specifically, it is selecting interventions and care that will cause the least amount of harm to achieve a beneficial outcome

The principle of nonmaleficence ensures the safety of the patient and community in all care delivery. Nurses are also responsible for reporting treatment options that are causing significant harm to a patient, which may include suicidal or homicidal ideations. 

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Revised in 2015 to include 9 provisions, the ANA’s nursing code of ethics now includes interpretative statements that can provide more specific guidance for nursing practice.

9 Provisions of the Nursing Code of Ethics 

Currently, the nurse’s code of ethics contains 9 main provisions:

• The nurse practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and unique attributes of every person.
• The nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, group, community, or population.
• The nurse promotes, advocates for, and protects the rights, health, and safety of the patient.
• The nurse has authority, accountability, and responsibility for nursing practice; makes decisions; and takes action consistent with the obligation to provide optimal patient care.
• The nurse owes the same duties to self as to others, including the responsibility to promote health and safety, preserve wholeness of character and integrity, maintain competence, and continue personal and professional growth.
• The nurse, through individual and collective effort, establishes, maintains, and improves the ethical environment of the work setting and conditions of employment that are conducive to safe, quality health care.
• The nurse, in all roles and settings, advances the profession through research and scholarly inquiry, professional standards development, and the generation of both nursing and health policy.
• The nurse collaborates with other health professionals and the public to protect human rights, promote health diplomacy, and reduce health disparities.
• The profession of nursing, collectively through its professional organization, must articulate nursing values, maintain the integrity of the profession, and integrate principles of social justice into nursing and health policy.

The nine provisions were implemented to help guide nurses in ethical decision-making throughout their practice. 

Unfortunately, nurses are often unable to make complex ethical decisions based solely on the four principles and nine provisions. In these instances, it is important to consult the ethics committee before making any major decisions. Often, other resources are needed when making major ethical decisions.

Interestingly, the nursing code of ethics is suggested to have been founded in 1893 and named the “Nightingale Pledge” after Florence Nightingale , the founder of modern nursing. As a modification of the Hippocratic Oath, taken by medical doctors, the Nightingale Pledge has been recited by nursing students at graduations with little changes since inception. 

The formal code of ethics was developed in the 1950s by the American Nurses Association (ANA) and has undergone numerous modifications since. The most significant recent change was in 2015 when 9 interpretative statements or provisions were added to the code of ethics to help guide nursing practice in a more definitive way. 

Many states include the ANA’s nursing code of ethics in their practice statements. Even though the code of ethics is primarily ethics-related, it also has legal implications. Given the importance of the code to the nursing profession, revisions continue on a regular basis.

Knowing the nursing code of ethics is essential for nurses because it will help guide everyday practice and navigate the daily complexities of the healthcare profession. Nurses often use the four major ethical principles throughout a shift, even if not fully aware of them. 

This may include,

• Providing pain medication to a post-operative hip replacement
• Holding the hand of a dying patient who is alone
• Advocating for the patient that wants to end chemotherapy and enter hospice care

Nursing is consistently regarded as the most honest and ethical profession and practicing with the nursing code of ethics is essential to ensuring that patients and their families receive the care they have come to know and expect. Utilizing the ethical codes of justice, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and beneficence on a daily basis allows nurses to provide the safest and most compassionate care for their patients. 

What are the five codes of ethics in nursing? 

• The 5 nursing ethic codes are: nonmaleficence, beneficence, autonomy, justice, and privacy/confidentiality. 

What is the Professional Code of Ethics for Nurses?

• The Professional Code of Ethics for Nurses is the guiding outline for how nurses should behave ethically within their profession and how they should decide to act if they encounter barriers that prevent them from fulfilling their professional obligations. 

Why is the code of ethics important in nursing? 

• It can guide nurses’ professional behavior, provide a framework for decision-making when faced with challenges, and provide support and help prevent moral distress. 

What is the code of ethics in healthcare? 

• There is not one board ethical code for every healthcare professional, although it has been proposed. Instead, each branch of healthcare, from quality control to medical directors to physicians to nursing, has its own ethical codes. 

What is scholarly ethics in nursing? 

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Kathleen Gaines (nee Colduvell) is a nationally published writer turned Pediatric ICU nurse from Philadelphia with over 13 years of ICU experience. She has an extensive ICU background having formerly worked in the CICU and NICU at several major hospitals in the Philadelphia region. After earning her MSN in Education from Loyola University of New Orleans, she currently also teaches for several prominent Universities making sure the next generation is ready for the bedside. As a certified breastfeeding counselor and trauma certified nurse, she is always ready for the next nursing challenge.

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110 Ethics in Nursing Essay Topics, Ideas & Examples

• April 14, 2023

Nursing is a profession that is built on ethical principles, values, and obligations. Nurses are responsible for providing patient care that is both compassionate and ethical, while also upholding the standards and principles of the nursing profession. Ethics in nursing are important because they guide nurses in making decisions that are in the best interest of their patients, while also considering the ethical implications of those decisions. In this post, we will provide nursing students with essay topic ideas and examples that demonstrate the importance of ethics in nursing.

Tips for Students Writing an Essay on Ethics in Nursing:

• Understand the Code of Ethics for Nurses: The American Nurses Association (ANA) has established a code of ethics for nurses that outlines the ethical responsibilities and principles that nurses should follow.
• Consider Real-World Scenarios: Ethics in nursing can be complex and nuanced. Consider real-world scenarios and case studies to better understand the ethical considerations that nurses must navigate.
• Discuss Ethical Dilemmas: Ethical dilemmas are common in nursing practice. Discuss how nurses can navigate ethical dilemmas while upholding their ethical obligations to their patients.
• Address the Impact of Culture and Diversity: Culture and diversity can impact ethical considerations in nursing. Discuss how nurses can provide culturally competent care while also upholding ethical principles.
• Consider the Role of Technology: Technology is changing the landscape of nursing practice, and it can also impact ethical considerations. Discuss how nurses can use technology ethically while also providing quality patient care.
• Discuss the Importance of Confidentiality: Confidentiality is an important ethical principle in nursing. Discuss how nurses can maintain patient confidentiality while also providing quality patient care.
• Address the Importance of Informed Consent : Informed consent is an essential aspect of nursing practice. Discuss the ethical considerations associated with informed consent and how nurses can ensure that patients fully understand their treatment options.

Ethics in nursing is a critical aspect of nursing practice that guides nurses in providing quality patient care that is both compassionate and ethical. By understanding the importance of ethical principles in nursing, students can better navigate the complex ethical considerations that arise in nursing practice. Consider the essay topics and tips provided in this post to gain a deeper understanding of ethics in nursing and its implications for patient care.

Ethics in Nursing Essay Topics/Ideas:

• The Ethical Implications of Rationing Care During a Pandemic
• The Role of the Nurse in Promoting End-of-Life Care that Respects Patient Autonomy
• Ethical Considerations in the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Nursing Practice
• The Ethics of Nurse-Patient Relationships: Boundaries and Professionalism
• The Importance of Ethical Decision-Making in Nursing Leadership
• The Ethics of Involuntary Hospitalization in Mental Health Nursing
• The Ethics of Mandatory Vaccination for Healthcare Workers
• Ethical Considerations in Nursing Research: Balancing Patient Autonomy and Scientific Progress
• The Ethics of Resource Allocation in Pediatric Nursing
• The Role of Ethics Committees in Nursing Practice
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Capital Punishment
• The Ethics of Nursing Practice in Correctional Facilities
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Assisted Suicide
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Clinical Trials
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Organ Procurement and Donation
• Ethical Considerations in the Use of Restraints in Nursing Practice
• The Impact of Legalization of Medical Marijuana on Nursing Ethics
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Euthanasia
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Abortion Care
• Ethical Considerations in Nursing Practice with Refugees and Asylum Seekers
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Physician-Assisted Death
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Fertility Treatments
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Gender Confirmation Procedures
• Ethical Considerations in Nursing Practice with Incarcerated Populations
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Surrogate Pregnancy

Controversial Ethics in Nursing Essay Topics:

• The Ethics of Nurses’ Refusal to Participate in Care Based on Religious or Moral Beliefs
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Elective Cosmetic Procedures
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Alternative Medicine Practices
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Conscientious Objection to Medical Procedures
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Death Penalty Executions
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Torture and Interrogation
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Unproven or Experimental Treatments
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Genetic Testing and Counseling
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Surrogate Decision-Making for Patients without Advance Directives
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Human Embryo Research
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Animal Research
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Clinical Trials that Involve Placebo Treatments
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Physician-Assisted Suicide
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Physician-Administered Execution
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Controversial Reproductive Health Services
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Psychiatric Treatments that Involve Restraints or Seclusion
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Use of Chemical Restraints
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Use of Physical Restraints
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Use of Electroconvulsive Therapy
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Management of Sexually Violent Offenders
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Management of Substance Use Disorders
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Management of Sex Offenders
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Management of Chronic Pain in Opioid-Dependent Patients
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Management of Homeless Patients
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Management of Patients with HIV/AIDS

Latest Ethics in Nursing Essay Topics to Write About:

• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Medical Assistance in Dying
• Ethical Considerations in Nursing Care for Patients with Substance Use Disorders
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Administration of Psychiatric Medications
• The Role of Ethics in the Use of Restraints in Nursing Practice
• Ethical Considerations in Nursing Care for Patients with Chronic Pain
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Medical Tourism
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Healthcare for Undocumented Immigrants
• Ethical Considerations in Nursing Care for Patients with Eating Disorders
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Cosmetic Surgery Procedures
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Weight Loss Surgery Procedures
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Use of Medical Marijuana
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Fetal Surgery
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Stem Cell Research
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Gene Therapy
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Use of Placebos in Medical Research
• Ethical Considerations in Nursing Care for Patients with Disabilities
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Surrogate Decision-Making for Pediatric Patients
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in Surrogate Decision-Making for Elderly Patients
• The Ethics of Nurses’ Participation in the Use of Genetic Testing in Nursing Practice
• Ethical Considerations in Nursing Care for Patients with Terminal Illnesses

Ethics in Nursing Research Questions:

• What are the ethical considerations in nursing care for patients with chronic pain?
• What is the role of ethics in nursing leadership?
• How do ethical considerations impact nursing care for patients with eating disorders?
• What is the ethical responsibility of nurses in promoting end-of-life care that respects patient autonomy?
• How do cultural and religious beliefs impact ethical considerations in nursing practice?
• What are the ethical implications of the use of technology in nursing practice?

What is the role of ethics committees in nursing practice?

• How do ethical considerations impact nursing care for patients with mental health disorders?
• What are the ethical implications of nurses’ participation in medical tourism?

What is the ethical responsibility of nurses in promoting patient-centered care?

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• How do ethical considerations impact nursing care for patients with terminal illnesses?
• What is the role of ethics in nursing research?
• How do ethical considerations impact nursing care for patients with HIV/AIDS?
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• What is the ethical responsibility of nurses in promoting patient safety?
• How do ethical considerations impact nursing care for patients with dementia?
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• What is the role of ethics in nursing education?
• How do ethical considerations impact nursing care for patients with traumatic brain injuries?
• What are the ethical implications of the use of artificial intelligence in nursing practice?

FAQs Related to Ethics in Nursing:

What is the importance of ethics in nursing practice.

Ethics in nursing practice is important because it guides nurses in making decisions that are in the best interest of their patients while also considering the ethical implications of those decisions.

What are some ethical considerations that nurses must navigate in their daily practice?

Nurses must navigate ethical considerations related to patient autonomy, informed consent, confidentiality, cultural competence, and end-of-life care, among others.

How can nurses ensure that they are practicing ethically?

Nurses can ensure that they are practicing ethically by staying up-to-date with the ethical principles and standards established by their professional organizations, seeking guidance from ethics committees, and reflecting on their own values and beliefs.

What should nurses do if they encounter an ethical dilemma in their practice?

Nurses should seek guidance from their colleagues, supervisors, or ethics committees when encountering an ethical dilemma in their practice.

Ethics committees provide guidance and support to nurses and other healthcare professionals when navigating ethical dilemmas in their practice.

What are some controversial ethical considerations in nursing practice?

Some controversial ethical considerations in nursing practice include nurses’ participation in assisted suicide, abortion care, and alternative medicine practices.

What is the impact of cultural diversity on ethical considerations in nursing practice?

Cultural diversity can impact ethical considerations in nursing practice by influencing patients’ values, beliefs, and preferences. Nurses must provide culturally competent care while also upholding ethical principles.

Nurses have an ethical responsibility to promote patient-centered care by respecting patients’ autonomy, preferences, and values, and by providing care that is compassionate and empathetic.

How can nurses use technology ethically while also providing quality patient care?

Nurses can use technology ethically by ensuring patient privacy and confidentiality, using evidence-based practices, and staying up-to-date with the latest technological advancements.

What are some ethical implications of nurses’ participation in medical research?

Ethical implications of nurses’ participation in medical research include ensuring informed consent, minimizing harm to participants, and ensuring that the research is conducted in an ethical and transparent manner.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, ethics in nursing practice is critical to providing quality patient care that is both compassionate and ethical. Nurses must navigate complex ethical considerations in their daily practice and ensure that they are practicing ethically by staying up-to-date with ethical principles and seeking guidance when encountering ethical dilemmas. By understanding the importance of ethics in nursing practice and navigating ethical considerations, nurses can provide patient-centered care that upholds the standards and principles of the nursing profession.

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Professional Values in Nursing Essay

Info: 2960 words (12 pages) Nursing Essay Published: 20th Aug 2020

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Personal Values and Beliefs in the Nursing Profession

How it works

There is more to nursing than just treating an illness; it is driven to bring optimal patient care that focuses on the needs of each patient as an individual. Patient values should be honored by providing compassionate and holistic care, which will be done to the best of my ability when I am a nurse.

• 1 My Philosophy Towards Nursing
• 2 A Personal Connection: My Stepmother’s Journey
• 3 Implementing Personal Experience in My Nursing Career

My Philosophy Towards Nursing

This philosophy is derived from the values and beliefs of being respectful, empathetic, compassionate, and a longing desire to care for a person as if they were your own, which has been instilled in me for most of my life; this is what steered me towards the nursing profession.

A Personal Connection: My Stepmother’s Journey

I have been moved with a longing desire to care for those in need. It first started when my stepmother was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. For eight years, I watched her cancer metastasize, go into remission, and then metastasize once more. The final time the cancer metastasized, it was then too late for chemotherapy to do anything because the cancer had metastasized to various parts of her body. My stepmother was then sent to a hospice facility where they had cared for her. Throughout the final months of her life, I sat with her and cared for her the best.

I could, and that’s when I realized the nursing profession was my calling. I vowed to my stepmother and myself that I would care for my patients the same as I cared for her in her final days. I believe that if I care for my patients as if they are my own, there will be no doubt I will make a difference as a nurse. I felt most fulfilled when I was serving and caring for my stepmother when she had cancer. When I lost her, I learned more about myself and what it would mean to be a good nurse. My attitude that will be used in nursing is one that will be focused on service and compassion.

Implementing Personal Experience in My Nursing Career

The foregoing analysis simply states what nursing means to me. The principles, values, and beliefs of my personal philosophy formed from my personal experience will be implemented in my own career as a nurse to better serve my patients and care for them as if they were my own. I want to focus on the needs of each patient as an individual with a holistic care approach, just like I had done with my stepmother during her time of need.

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Personal Nursing Philosophy, Values and Beliefs Essay

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Introduction

My personal philosophy, why i am in school, works cited.

A personal philosophy can be defined as a set of beliefs, attitudes, concepts, and convictions that guide an individual’s way of living and doing things, personally and professionally. Many people consider the creation of personal philosophy as an elementary exercise that serves only to fulfill the requirements of certain academic endeavors. However, it is an indispensable component of proper life because it allows people to make better choices that are based on personal values and beliefs.

Moreover, it gives their life purpose because they act and behave in ways that aim to achieve certain desired outcomes. As a nursing major, my personal philosophy is based on my inclination to help people alleviate suffering and improve the quality of their lives. It is my duty to apply my knowledge and skills to prevent and manage illnesses so as to improve the physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being of patients.

My personal philosophy is founded on certain beliefs and values that guide my decision-making and that inspire me to engage in a meaningful contribution in my career as a nurse. My beliefs and values influence the choices I make every day. Therefore, it is important for me to identify them, clarify their influence, and live them daily. These values include honesty, responsibility, compassion, lifelong learning, and kindness.

Nursing is not only a career, but a calling that requires the possession of integrity, knowledge, and compassion (Kim 54). My personal philosophy postulates that I have a responsibility to use my knowledge and abilities to help people alleviate their suffering by providing safe and holistic patient-centered care regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. It is my responsibility to meet my needs and those of my patients by being honest, kind, and compassionate. Moreover, it is my obligation as a nurse to create a healthy environment that will promote a speedy recovery and improve the physical and psychological well-being of patients. I am committed to lifelong learning because that is the best approach to improving the quality of my life and progressing in my career.

I am a passionate and spiritual human being who is committed to using physical, mental, and spiritual capabilities to live a meaningful life through service in the nursing profession. I am a product of my beliefs, ideas, and values that have been acquired through life experiences and the acquisition of knowledge. Spirituality is an important component that enhances an individual’s kindness and compassion (Smith and Parker 83). Important components of self-identity include world view, self-esteem, personality attributes, physical attributes, and knowledge of one’s skills (Masters 95). Self-identity is an important aspect of building a strong character. I chose to pursue a career in nursing owing to my attributes that include compassion and commitment to alleviate physical suffering.

My goals are to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, maintain a lifelong learning habit, and help people to prevent and manage diseases through the application of skills and knowledge obtained in school. In addition, I want to become a nurse practitioner and researcher so that I can make meaningful contributions to society. After graduation, I intend to pursue a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree and go into advanced nursing practice. I believe that pursuing a master’s degree in nursing will empower me to make significant contributions to society by becoming an advanced nursing practitioner (Hood 65). In addition, it will equip me with advanced research skills that will be useful in my commitment to lifelong learning.

I am in school to acquire the necessary knowledge that is required for advanced nursing practice. The nursing program’s courses, extracurricular activities, and personal as well as professional interactions and networks will equip me with the skills necessary for success in life. The main goal of attending school is to develop proper attitudes and competencies, as well as improving skills in human interactions, problem-solving, and decision-making (Smith and Parker 35).

The core skills, values, and attitudes of nursing can be obtained only by enrolling in an appropriate nursing program (Schober 62). One of my goals is to maintain a lifelong habit of learning. In that regard, attending school will enhance my creativity and research skills, which are necessary for lifelong learning. I am also in school to enhance my communication skills. Effective communication is an important skill to possess in nursing because it enhances the provision of quality health care (Smith and Parker 48).

My personal philosophy is applicable to all aspects of my personal and professional endeavors. It is based on values that include integrity, kindness, responsibility, compassion, and lifelong learning. My major goal is to pursue a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree after completing my undergraduate degree. I want to go into advanced nursing practice because it will offer me the opportunity to contribute to society in a meaningful way. The knowledge and skills that I will acquire in school will be necessary for the attainment of personal and professional goals.

Hood, Lucy. Leddy and Pepper’s Conceptual Bases of Professional Nursing . Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2013.

Kim, Hesook Suzie. Essence of Nursing Practice: Philosophy and Perspective . Springer Publishing Company, 2015.

Masters, Kathleen. Role Development in Professional Nursing Practice . 4 th ed., Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2015.

Schober, Madrean. Strategic Planning for Advanced Nursing Practice . Springer International Publishing, 2017.

Smith, Marlaine C., and Marilyn Parker. Nursing Theories and Nursing Practice . F. A. Davis, 2015.

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At the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece, 3 August 2017. Photo by Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

The value of our values

When nietzsche used the tools of philology to explore the nature of morality, he became a ‘philosopher of the future’.

by Alexander Prescott-Couch   + BIO

In Human, All Too Human (1878), Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that ‘A lack of historical sense is the original failing of all philosophers.’ In accusing philosophy of lacking historical sense, Nietzsche was echoing broader trends in 19th-century thought. In comparison with the ‘philosophical’ 18th century, the 19th century is sometimes described as the ‘historical’ century, one in which investigation into more universal features of human reason gave way to increased focus on how particular historical trajectories influence language, culture and moral assumptions.

The 19th century is also what one might call the ‘philological century’. Philology is the critical study of written sources, including their linguistic features, history of reception and cultural context. Today, the term sounds outmoded, evoking dusty, learned tomes of fastidious source criticism. However, philology was a leading intellectual discipline in 19th-century Germany due to a flurry of methodological developments that revolutionised our understanding of ancient and sacred texts. New rigorous techniques of verifying sources were developed, merely speculative hypotheses were discouraged, more detailed comparative studies of language were conducted. While such methods were scholarly, sometimes bordering on scholastic, their application had significant cultural impact, spilling out of scholarly journals into broader public consciousness.

Nietzsche imbibed these trends as a young man. An all-round talented student (mathematics was a notable exception), he gained admittance as a 14-year-old to Schulpforta, one of the most prestigious humanistic schools in Germany. A training ground for scholars and teachers, the school’s specialty was classical antiquity, and Nietzsche received a rigorous education in Greek and Latin, read historical works by Voltaire and Cicero, and wrote philological treatises on topics such as the saga of Ermanarich and the Greek poet Theognis.

This philological education informed not only his early works that deal directly with Greek antiquity, such as The Birth of Tragedy (1872), but also his later books on morality and moral psychology. Appreciating this philological influence is crucial for understanding the significance of his philosophically most important work, On the Genealogy of Morality (1887), and the ‘genealogical’ method of philosophy it has inspired.

O n the Genealogy of Morality is a puzzling book. It deals with many classic topics of moral philosophy, such as the concept of good, free will, moral responsibility and guilt. However, it does not investigate them in a typical philosophical fashion – for instance, by asking ‘What is good?’ or ‘Do we have free will?’ Rather, it takes a historical approach, asking where our ideas about the good, or free will, or guilt, have come from.

Nietzsche’s answers to these historical questions were and continue to be, to put it mildly, controversial. Not for nothing did he describe himself as ‘dynamite’. For instance, he argued that contemporary Western egalitarian and altruistic assumptions were a form of ‘slave morality’ that emerged from the frustrations and ressentiment (roughly, resentment) of a priestly caste. This slave morality was a reaction against what Nietzsche calls ‘master morality’, an archaic ethics that emphasises virtues of excellence, health and respect for social hierarchy. Master morality valorises strength and denigrates the meekness and bookish intellectualism of the religious leaders of the priestly caste. In response, according to Nietzsche, the religious leaders invented a new evaluative framework in which they come out on top – one in which aggressiveness is classified as ‘evil’ and meekness and altruism as ‘good’ – a revaluation of existing values. These moral assumptions are then taken up by the lower slave caste, as they valorised their lowly status and enabled them to reinterpret their impotence as principled choice. In sum, on Nietzsche’s view, many of our fundamental moral assumptions derive from archaic status competition.

What has puzzled many readers of Nietzsche’s genealogy is how these historical claims are supposed to be relevant to philosophical questions about morality. Nietzsche states that his ultimate aim is to assess ‘the value of our values’, but it is not clear how his historical claims could or should contribute to this assessment. In turning to history, it might seem that Nietzsche is simply shifting the subject of moral philosophy, following the adage that if you don’t like what is being said, then you should change the conversation. After all, the question of where our values come from just seems like a different question from philosophical questions about their nature, value and authority. If Nietzsche is trying to use this history to answer these philosophical questions, then it might seem he is committing a fallacy, the ‘genetic fallacy’.

Showing that something has a bad origin isn’t sufficient to show that it is bad

The genetic fallacy is the purported mistake of evaluating something on the basis of its origin or past characteristics. For instance, imagine a friend tells you that you should not wear a wedding ring because wedding rings originally symbolised ankle chains worn by women to prevent them from running away from their husbands (the example is from Attacking Faulty Reasoning (7th ed, 2012) by T Edward Damer). Even if wedding rings have such a dubious history, this history does not show that it is bad or objectionable to wear them now. When Nietzsche suggests that he should reevaluate Christian morality on the basis of this origin story, we might suspect he is employing a similar type of fallacious reasoning.

Concerns about falling prey to the genetic fallacy are part of what explain moral philosophy’s lack of a historical sense. Showing that something has a bad origin isn’t sufficient to show that it is bad, as the previous examples indicate. Neither does examining the origins of our values seem necessary for evaluating them. To evaluate our moral beliefs and practices, it seems that we need only look at the reasons for and against them, not the causes of our beliefs in them. For instance, to criticise egalitarianism, we should consider potential objections to egalitarian attitudes, such as that they recommend levelling down, prevent the achievement of human excellence, or fail to honour supposed differences in moral desert. Whatever one thinks of these criticisms, it seems that making and assessing them does not require looking at the history of our values. If these points are correct, we can see why moral philosophy would proceed ahistorically: if moral philosophy aims to critically scrutinise the value of our values, and origin stories are neither necessary nor sufficient for this purpose, then origin stories are irrelevant to moral philosophy.

Nietzsche thought this reasoning mistaken, although exactly why he thought so is a matter of scholarly dispute. His historical critique is typically understood in one of two ways: either he held that historical information was directly relevant to the authority or justification of moral norms, or he held it was indirectly relevant by providing evidence that moral attitudes are motivated by ressentiment and/or hinder great human achievements.

T o grasp how history might be directly relevant to the status of our values, we might begin by acknowledging that the value of many human artefacts depends on their history – Picasso paintings are more valuable than perfect replicas because they come from Picasso and not from a copyist, and your family heirlooms hold special value because of their historical connection to your family. Something similar may be true of our values.

For instance, if our values include or imply commands, then their history might be relevant to their authority , our obligation to obey them . Many commands depend for their authority on the authority of the commander, and vengeful clergy with status anxiety do not seem like authoritative commanders. More specifically, one might think that the authority of moral commands depends on their coming from God or pure reason, so insofar as historical investigation reveals that they derive from a secular ‘human, all too human’ source, then history might undermine their authority. If Christian values turn out to have been born from resentment, then that, on this sort of argument, undermines their value to us today. In a similar way, philological work that traces the Bible back to secular origins might undermine the authority of the moral teachings contained within it by undermining the claim that those teachings come from God or Jesus.

Another way that the status of our values may depend directly on their history is if they include or imply beliefs about value claims, as historical information can affect whether our beliefs are justified. I might destabilise a belief by coming to know that the process by which I acquired that belief is unreliable. For instance, say I believe a rumour that my grandfather used to pilfer money from the church collection jar, and I acquired this belief from my father. However, I then learn that my father heard this rumour from his brother, who is a notorious liar and resentful of his strict religious upbringing. Given that my belief traces back to an unreliable source, I might reasonably think that my belief is no longer justified.

If moral norms were originally motivated by ressentiment , then this directly ‘taints’ them in some fashion

Similarly, it might be that we acquired our moral beliefs from our parents (and broader culture), who acquired them from their parents (and broader culture), all the way back to the vengeful clergy. But if vengeful clergy are not a reliable guide to the moral truth, then I should distrust my parents’ teachings and therefore my moral beliefs. Nietzsche’s historical story might therefore help emancipate us from illusions by exposing information that challenges our faith in cherished but unjustified assumptions.

These points about authority and justification are points that philosophers sometimes make about the relevance of history for moral philosophy, and it is possible that Nietzsche was making points of this kind. However, this interpretation does not capture what many commentators and lay readers typically take to be the main insights of Nietzsche’s text. For instance, when undergraduates read the Genealogy, they usually take with them the idea that Nietzsche’s history shows that much avowed concern with virtue, rightness and justice is less noble than it purports to be – it is motivated by some concoction of petty vengefulness, self-valorisation and resentment against powerful and high-status others. Here, it is Nietzsche’s claims about the particular interests and motives of the priests, warriors and slaves that is crucial, not merely the fact that none of these figures is divine or reliable.

How might these interests and motives play a role in Nietzsche’s critique of morality? Perhaps Nietzsche is assuming that, if moral norms were originally motivated by ressentiment , then this directly renders them objectionable by ‘tainting’ them in some fashion, even if those who conform to them nowadays are not motivated in the same manner. However, Nietzsche need not make this assumption. It is more likely that Nietzsche sees his historical story as relevant in a more indirect manner, as evidence of similar psychological dynamics in contemporary society. On such a view, genealogy is relevant to a critique of morality because it provides evidence that contemporary morality has objectionable features, such as bad motives, that are not themselves historical.

The idea that many avowed moral views have dubious motives is not a hard sell, particularly given modern internet culture. So one might wonder why one need turn to history to make this observation. There are two reasons. First, Nietzsche’s history helps us see these dynamics more clearly by telling a historical story in which they are present in a simple and unmasked form. While contemporary morality is overlaid with complexities and rationalisations, if we look to the past, we can better see psychological dynamics that have now been obscured. History, on this interpretation, is used to unmask the present.

Second, because we are less personally and emotionally invested in viewing past situations in a particular manner, we are better able to take a less credulous, more realistic perspective of it. While we might bristle at thinking that our political convictions are motivated by ressentiment , we are more likely to recognise this dynamic in historically distant others, which then enables us to recognise it more easily in ourselves. Historical perspective prevents us from giving in to wishful thinking.

These points form an important strand of Nietzsche’s thinking. However, there are challenges to reading Nietzsche as using history in this indirect, evidential manner. Such interpretations treat the past as merely a simplified version of the present, differing from contemporary society only in minor ways. Consequently, this approach overlooks the kinds of significant historical change and contingency that are central to historicist perspectives on our social practices. If this account of Nietzsche’s genealogy were the whole story, it would seem that Nietzsche himself would lack a historical sense. If we want to understand how Nietzsche’s Genealogy might honour such historicist assumptions, we should turn to the history of Nietzsche’s genealogical method itself. That is, we should return to philology.

M uch philological research in Nietzsche’s time was interested in investigating the way in which ancient and sacred texts are complex composites, with diverging elements stitched together from conflicting sources. For instance, Julius Wellhausen argued that the Pentateuch, the Hebrew Bible, was a human artefact that could be decomposed into four independent sources, each of which originated significantly after Moses (who was previously thought to be the sole author, a kind of ghostwriter for the divine). This source criticism enables us to see the Hebrew Bible less as a unified work and more as an amalgam of distinct elements with differing histories. This information discourages looking to the Bible for a unified theology, and therefore encouraged taking a less theological approach to the Bible generally.

As a teenager at Schulpforta , Nietzsche learned this broad philological approach to ancient texts. For instance, his teacher Friedrich August Koberstein (himself a revered scholar and historian) suggested that he research a poem on the saga of the 4th-century Ostrogoth King Ermanarich. The poem is puzzling because some parts describe Ermanarich as a noble hero while others describe him as a coward and someone who murdered his wife. It is not obvious how readers are supposed to evaluate Ermanarich. Adopting a historical perspective, young Nietzsche argued that these conflicts arise from the fact that the poem does not have a single author but rather derives from a variety of sources – it is a layered construction with some parts from the Near East, others from Germany, as well as some from Denmark and Britain.

Nietzsche traces back different aspects of our moral framework to distinct sources

This broad approach to texts informs Nietzsche’s thinking about contemporary morality, which he describes in the Genealogy ’s preface as a ‘long, hard-to-decipher hieroglyphic script’. When we look at our contemporary values, there are some ostensible tensions. For instance, many believe that excellent human achievements deserve special admiration and rewards, but also that it is only fair to receive special rewards for things that one has earned. But excellent human achievements are often due, at least partially, to innate talents that are not earned, so these views seem in tension. Much moral philosophy involves teasing out such intuitive judgments, finding tensions among them, and considering ways of resolving these tensions, much like a theological approach to the Bible involves identifying explicit and implicit theological claims in the text, finding tensions among them, and considering ways of resolving them.

However, Nietzsche’s philological approach is different. Like Wellhausen’s historical analysis of the Hebrew Bible, Nietzsche traces back different aspects of our moral framework to distinct sources. The perfectionist elements come from the warrior caste, the egalitarian ones from the priestly caste and slave caste, and other aspects of our moral framework – such as respect for ancestors – have still other sources. Rather than simply different strands coming together, we have a ‘document’ that has been rewritten and reinterpreted over time, often by those with complex and conflicting motivations. A philological approach to morality understands it as a complex amalgam rather than a unified evaluative framework.

This historical approach differs from more typical forms of moral philosophy because it does not assume that there is a unified answer to questions like ‘What is the good?’, at least if that answer is supposed to fit with many of our intuitive judgments. Rather, it brings out the competing strands of our moral thinking by providing an explanation of their presence that suggests that there won’t be a way to reconcile them. That is, just as a scientific philology of the Bible might undermine the presuppositions of Christian theology – that one will be able to construct a unified theology that fits sacred texts – so too a philology of morality undermines a presupposition of a certain strand of moral philosophy, that there is a unified moral theory that will make sense of our moral assumptions and practices. When one takes the historical perspective, much moral philosophy looks like it is engaged in a hopeless apologetic project of trying to reconcile what cannot be reconciled. There is no higher compromise between masters and slaves.

N ow, if Nietzsche’s philological approach were relevant only to philosophical methodology, it might seem of little interest outside academic debate. However, this approach to morality does not just highlight a problem for contemporary moral philosophy. It also highlights a problem for us. For the fact that our modern moral views are fragmented and disunified itself poses problems. It means that it is difficult to act effectively and consistently, as there is no overarching framework for reconciling competing considerations in practical decision-making. It means that we might be committed to assessing ourselves according to conflicting criteria, ensuring that we are never able to measure up to the standards we set for ourselves. It sets us against ourselves. Nietzsche considered this kind of fragmentation and tension in our views a kind of illness, one of the ways in which modern society is sick.

Once one sees how the tools of philology can be applied to morality, it is easy to see how they can be extended to other parts of contemporary culture. If we examine the history of the norms that structure various social identities, we are often able to make salient forms of internal conflict that are latent in everyday life. For example, by examining the history of gender norms, we may more clearly discern tensions within contemporary conceptions of gender – eg, if you’re a woman, you are supposed to be both an angel of the house and a girlboss, and if you’re a man, you need to be an alpha while avoiding being toxically masculine. These competing norms often create conflicts within those who are invested in these identities, and clarifying the conflict may help avoid fruitless and frustrating attempts to reconcile these competing elements.

Of course, fragmentation and tension need not always be negative – there can be productive tensions, as Nietzsche recognised . Later theorists who have wanted to apply this philological approach to the cultural sphere have often aimed to emphasise its emancipatory potential. For example, understanding national histories as multifaceted genealogies, yielding political communities that are complex composites rather than unified cultures, enables one to appreciate the dynamism of cultural richness and challenge simplistic views of cultural homogeneity. ‘Unity’ is not a virtue in every domain.

Stepping back, a central puzzle about Nietzsche is why a self-styled ‘philosopher of the future’ should be so interested in the past. By examining the history of Nietzsche’s historicism, we can discern an answer. If employed critically, philology is not merely a tool for exploring the past but one for actively shaping the future.

History of ideas

Philosophy of the people

How two amateur schools pulled a generation of thinkers from the workers and teachers of the 19th-century American Midwest

Joseph M Keegin

Virtues and vices

Make it awkward!

Rather than being a cringey personal failing, awkwardness is a collective rupture – and a chance to rewrite the social script

Alexandra Plakias

Metaphysics

Desperate remedies

In order to make headway on knotty metaphysical problems, philosophers should look to the methods used by scientists

Political philosophy

Citizens and spinning wheels

For Indians to be truly free, Gandhi argued they must take up traditional crafts. Was it a quixotic hope or inspired solution?

Benjamin Studebaker

C L R James and America

The brilliant Trinidadian thinker is remembered as an admirer of the US but he also warned of its dark political future

Harvey Neptune

Thinkers and theories

Rawls the redeemer

For John Rawls, liberalism was more than a political project: it is the best way to fashion a life that is worthy of happiness

Alexandre Lefebvre