Foreword

Nursing ethics is often seen as taking a back seat to the more technical, psychomotor skills of nursing. When nurses do learn about ethics, it’s often in a context that teaches us to be kind angels that are there to heal the sins of the world. Indeed, new nurses tend to emerge from nursing school with the concepts of discipline and respect ringing in their ears. Too often, nurses aren’t taught the true nature of nursing. Instead, nurses graduate knowing to fear their managers, pour their sweat and tears into the systems in which they work, and never complain.

The very call of the profession is to be a united, coordinated and strong voice of health. Because Canadian nurses are public servants, numerous, organized, and with a broad body of health knowledge, Canadian nurses are uniquely positioned to serve this role. The way Dr. Stephany puts it in her class, nurses should graduate nursing school ready to not only do their day-to-day job, but also to change the world. In a sense, to care enough for the patient, whether it’s a single person or an entire society, to live not only one’s vocational life, but one’s entire life in the path of service to others.

Understanding nursing ethics from a perspective of the Ethic of Care is a strong asset in this regard. While nurses share the objective domains of health with the rest of the healthcare system, their unique ability to provide a firm bridge into the subjective domains is what makes nurses an indispensable component of any healthy society.