It is always SONEI in Nursing Ethics……with apologies for a bit of morning pre-latte humor! The Society for Nursing Ethics International (SONEI.org) has been established and the website has gone 🎉 live! The website is fully open, fully accessible to subscribers and non-subscribers alike — and it is entirely FREE. Because, well, nurses are freely … Continue reading Announcing – the Society for Nursing Ethics International (SONEI)
Ethics
The Second Set of Eyes
Contributor: Hephzibah Thomas MSN, RN-BC Working in an outpatient setting is where you are simultaneously coordinating care in-person, triaging a symptom-based call on MyChart, refilling medications, screening labs so you don’t miss a critical value, managing continuous overflow of patients so providers are running on time, de-escalating patient concerns, attending to Rapid Response calls, being … Continue reading The Second Set of Eyes
A Nurse’s Instinct, A Life Saved
Van Nguyen DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC, FNP-C, PMGT-BC One of the most rewarding moments in my nursing career came unexpectedly during a routine shift that became anything but routine. I was assigned to care for a 52-year-old male with esophageal cancer, seven days post-op after an esophagectomy. Esophageal cancer accounts for 2.6% of all new cancer … Continue reading A Nurse’s Instinct, A Life Saved
Why I Will Not let Nursing Lose Caring
Contributor - Mariana Lori Jurist, BSN, RNPhD Student, FAU College of Nursing Caring, to me, is not an approach. It’s the reason I became a nurse, and the reason I stay one. I have learned that if I am not careful, the word caring can get treated like a soft add-on, something nice that sits … Continue reading Why I Will Not let Nursing Lose Caring
Action Defending Democracy: Overdue Reckoning on Racism in Nursing – March 28, April 4, 18 & 25
Co-contributors - Lucinda Canty, Christina Nyirati Over the past year, the Nursology.net team members have developed a thread of blogs focused on Action Defending Democracy. The "Overdue Reckoning" discussions provide a way for nurses to come together and engage in emancipatory action! These actions are fundamental to our ethical duty as nurses, and to emancipatory … Continue reading Action Defending Democracy: Overdue Reckoning on Racism in Nursing – March 28, April 4, 18 & 25
Emancipatory Nursing and the Limits of Political Neutrality
Contributor - Kaija Freborg, DNP, RN, AHN-BC, HWNC-BC Helpless. This is how a Minneapolis nurse described feeling in response to the militarized occupation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota, an operation that is being used to disappear immigrants, racialized people, and others who stand in the way. With despair, the nurse recounted having … Continue reading Emancipatory Nursing and the Limits of Political Neutrality
Moral Anguish Demands Moral Action
Posts by Marsha Fowler In the early 1980s, Andy and I mused on many things including moral uncertainty, moral dilemma, and moral distress. We would never have thought that moral distress was entry level, barely across the threshold. Perhaps we now need “moral anguish.” Moral anguish: when we know what is right and good, but … Continue reading Moral Anguish Demands Moral Action
Call Them Somali Americans
Contributor - Kathleen "Katie" Clark, DNP, RN Witness - Why we cannot look away I write this as a nurse educator in Minneapolis, where federal immigration enforcement has become part of everyday life. As nurses, we have a fundamental responsibility to respond to the crises and challenges of our time, centering on emancipatory approaches. As … Continue reading Call Them Somali Americans
Nursing Voices in the US Immigrant Crisis
Alex Pretti, ICU nurse assassinated by ICE on January 24, 2026 At our January Nursology.net Advisory Team Zoom meeting, we heard from a colleague who lives and works in the great city of Minneapolis. She spoke of the suffering in her neighborhood, where people are being terrorized by atrocities committed against Brown people and others. … Continue reading Nursing Voices in the US Immigrant Crisis
Truth in Action and Presence in Practice: Integrating Gandhi’s Philosophy and the Careful Nursing Model in Contemporary Nursing
Contributor - Julie Joseph, MSN,RN, CCRNPhD Student, Texas Woman's University A Global Journey Toward Truth and Presence in Nursing Having practiced in India and Ireland, and currently working in the United States, I have observed nursing from diverse cultural perspectives. Across these contexts, one insight remains constant: nursing is more than a profession; it is … Continue reading Truth in Action and Presence in Practice: Integrating Gandhi’s Philosophy and the Careful Nursing Model in Contemporary Nursing
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) 25th Quadrennial Congress in Melbourne, May 2013: A Personal Recollection
Contributor - Miriam Hirschfeld, DNSc, RN Late in the year 2012 I am approached by Canadian colleagues requesting my help in their campaign to elect Prof. Judith Shamian, the Canadian Chief Nurse, as President of the International Council of Nurses (ICN). Judith is a friend, I am delighted to try to help, knowing also that … Continue reading The International Council of Nurses (ICN) 25th Quadrennial Congress in Melbourne, May 2013: A Personal Recollection
Nursing Ethics is a Century Older than Bioethics
Marsha Fowler's Nursology.net postsNursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present: An Archaeology of Lost Wisdom and Identity The earliest nursing ethics literature began with modern nursing itself. It was a main ingredient, baked into the cake of nursing, and was not decorative frosting. It went on to become an extraordinary and extensive body of literature in … Continue reading Nursing Ethics is a Century Older than Bioethics
Big Health Care Data Research and Consent
Guest Contributor: Fengyan DengPhD student at Texas Woman's University, CRNA at Texas Medical Center Houston Methodist Hospital The origin of the word "big data" is vague. Only in 2012 did The New York Times publish multiple articles that helped bring the concept of "Big Data" into the mainstream. The most significant impact was Steve Lohr's … Continue reading Big Health Care Data Research and Consent
Bird Brains, Edge Group Effect, and Nursing Knowledge Drift
"The Hudsonian Godwit makes a trip from breeding grounds in arctic Alaska almost to the southernmost tip of South America—just under 10,000 miles!" - Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology When I was a child we called one another “birdbrain” when we had done something stupid or counterproductive. It was a harsh insult. But in more recent years a significant … Continue reading Bird Brains, Edge Group Effect, and Nursing Knowledge Drift
AI Ain’t Never Been a Nurse: On AI and the 2025 Revision of the Code of Ethics for Nurses
View all posts by Marsha FowlerBook “Nursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present: An Anthology of Lost Wisdom and Identity” A nurse friend and colleague recently contacted me to tell me of an interaction she had with a colleague of hers. My friend mentioned to her that she knew someone who had worked on the new … Continue reading AI Ain’t Never Been a Nurse: On AI and the 2025 Revision of the Code of Ethics for Nurses
The Ocean We Navigate: A Metaphor for Professional Development in Nursing
Guest Contributor: Leah KorkisDirector of Clinical Education and Nursing Excellence, University of Southern California I grew up kayaking with my Dad off the shores of Kailua, Oahu. I remember with each stroke of my paddle the shifting winds blowing through my hair, the rhythmic lapping of waves, and the mysterious expanse stretching beneath and beyond. … Continue reading The Ocean We Navigate: A Metaphor for Professional Development in Nursing
Integrating the ANA Code of Ethics in Nursing Education: Advancing Equity and Care for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities
Guest Contributors: Angela McClure and Katie DavisTexas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing Nursing education must be rooted in ethical standards that promote compassionate, competent, and equitable care for all individuals, including those with intellectual disabilities (ID). The American Nursing Association Code of Ethics guidesd the delivery of compassionate and skilled care, ensuring … Continue reading Integrating the ANA Code of Ethics in Nursing Education: Advancing Equity and Care for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities
🤬 and Banned Words: Advancing our Scholarship and Activism of Outrage – Part II
My beloved aunt, my mother’s sister, was a Southerner, what one might have called a “genteel woman” who was never harsh but could be stern. There would be no thought of using a curse word; Heaven forfend! When the men cursed she said it was “a mite tee-jus” to have to listen. Should any of … Continue reading 🤬 and Banned Words: Advancing our Scholarship and Activism of Outrage – Part II
Banned Words and a Scholarship and Activism of Outrage
Introduction In their recent article, “Federal Government’s Growing Banned Words List Is Chilling Act of Censorship” (https://pen.org/banned-words-list/), Pen America compiled a list of 250 words unacceptable to the Trump administration that soon became a list of 350 words. Not to be outdone, Reuters, Gizmodo, The Washington Post, Propublica, More Perfect Union, Science, 404 Media, Popular … Continue reading Banned Words and a Scholarship and Activism of Outrage
Woe to those who make unjust laws
Ethical Knowing in NursingBlogs by Marsha Fowler Isaiah 10.1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.3 What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar?To whom will you run for … Continue reading Woe to those who make unjust laws