Contributor, Frances Okpaluba Should nurses view mental health access as a moral responsibility or an ethical requirement? Although these terms are frequently used synonymously, they possess a slight variation. Ethics represents the structured analysis of morality, while morals demonstrate the principles that influence our individual and professional decisions. For nurses, ethics and morals matter deeply. … Continue reading Moral Duty, Ethical Mandate: Why Nurses Must Champion Mental Health Access
Ethical Knowing
Theories behind the Magical Touch!
Contributor: Kunta Gautam My clinical practice as a pediatric nurse practitioner resides in an outpatient urgent care setting next to the hospital's emergency department. In this blog post, I will share a clinical encounter that inspired reflection on the meaning of my practice as a nurse . A 14-year-old girl came to the clinic because … Continue reading Theories behind the Magical Touch!
False Equivalencies in Nursing Ethics
Part 1: A Call for Moral Clarity Sally Thorne’s March 11 (2025) “We Were Made for These Times” editorial in Nursing Inquiry stimulated a lively discussion among nurse leaders about our ethical obligations (see for example, our Nursology.net March 21st post). Given the tumultuous challenges we are confronting every day now, the group was energized … Continue reading False Equivalencies in Nursing Ethics
Ethical Considerations in Grounded Theory Research: Peplau’s Theory, Pattern Recognition, and Psychological Safety in the Nurse-Patient Relationship
Guest Contributor: Jitana Benton-LeePhD student in nursing at Texas Women's University Research in nursing has long emphasized the importance of the nurse-patient relationship as a foundational component of care. However, as nurse scholars, we must also critically examine how we ethically engage in research that seeks to understand this relationship, particularly through grounded theory methodologies. … Continue reading Ethical Considerations in Grounded Theory Research: Peplau’s Theory, Pattern Recognition, and Psychological Safety in the Nurse-Patient Relationship
Connecting hearts, saving lives: Joyce Travelbee’s human-to-human relationship model in the compassionate nursing care of a patient with suicidal ideation
Guest Contributor: Joana Margarida Martins Fernandes “I’m tired of being alive”: these were the first words I heard leave Pedro's lips (name changed). Pedro was found at home after committing self-harm with suicidal intent. The resident made the call for help in another room at the hostel where he lived. When I arrived, I told … Continue reading Connecting hearts, saving lives: Joyce Travelbee’s human-to-human relationship model in the compassionate nursing care of a patient with suicidal ideation
Jeanne Quint Benoliel (December 9, 1919 – January 23, 2012)
Guardian of the DisciplineIn Memoriam Contributor: Faith A. Tissot RN, CCRN, MSN-EdPhD student at Texas Women's University December 9, 1919 – January 23, 2012 Source: https://magazine.washington.edu/jeanne-quint-benoliel-1919-2012/ Distinguished nursing colleagues and scholars describe Dr. Benoliel as “a giant nurse pioneer and mentor in palliative care who gave nurses who care for the dying a voice.” Dr. Benoliel’s … Continue reading Jeanne Quint Benoliel (December 9, 1919 – January 23, 2012)
Rethinking Nursing: Moving Beyond Heroic Narratives
Guest Contributor: Hyeyoung HwangDNP/PhD student at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing I still remember the excitement and nervousness I felt on the day of the Nightingale Pledge ceremony. Almost all nursing schools in South Korea, where I was born and raised, hold this ceremony to prepare nursing students for patient care. Before starting clinical … Continue reading Rethinking Nursing: Moving Beyond Heroic Narratives
Elevating Patient- Centered Care: Embracing Spiritual and Religious Diversity
Contributor: Faith Tissot, RN, MSN-Ed, CCRNDoctoral Student at Texas Women's University Spirituality, which can include religion and prayer, is a customary theme in nursing, healthcare research, and among healthcare professionals globally. Spirituality and religiousness are an adjunct for an individual to draw meaning from life events, a conduit for connectedness to an individual’s definition of … Continue reading Elevating Patient- Centered Care: Embracing Spiritual and Religious Diversity
The Power of Five Wishes: Nurse Knowing During End-of-Life Care
Contributor: Judith Pare The universality of death is a widely accepted phenomenon that many nurses deal with on an almost daily basis. The World Health Organization (2005) has stressed the importance of expert palliative and hospice care as a critical caring global need for people with heart failure, cancer, and other progressive terminal illnesses. For … Continue reading The Power of Five Wishes: Nurse Knowing During End-of-Life Care
Paid Preceptorship and the Nurse Practitioner Preceptor Shortage: An Ethical Dilemma
Contributor: Michelle Alexandre, MSN, ACNS-BC Nurse practitioner (NP) students are all too often faced with the challenge of securing their clinical preceptors (Doherty et al., 2020). Last year a colleague and owner of an NP preceptor matching company reached out to me offering me substantial monetary compensation to serve as one of their clinical preceptors. … Continue reading Paid Preceptorship and the Nurse Practitioner Preceptor Shortage: An Ethical Dilemma
Deception and Examination: Gleaning from Patterns of Knowing in Nursing to Expose Healthcare Fraud
Contributor: T'Neecia Leigh Applewhite MBA MS APRN FNP-C Nurses are not just the backbone of the healthcare systems worldwide but also the vigilant guardians against healthcare fraud. As the largest and most trusted healthcare occupation in the United States, with over 3.4 million registered nurses, we are more than just healthcare workers. We are innovative … Continue reading Deception and Examination: Gleaning from Patterns of Knowing in Nursing to Expose Healthcare Fraud
Identity-grounded Ethics: Ethical methodology and analysis of racism (and other -isms) in Nursing
There is little in the way of an ethical analysis of racism in the bioethical literature. Nor is there anything on racism that incorporates identity-grounded ethics in a bioethical analysis. Even more damning is the fact that racism, sexism, and classism (land ownership) are embedded in US Constitution and bioethics has yet to come to … Continue reading Identity-grounded Ethics: Ethical methodology and analysis of racism (and other -isms) in Nursing
Patient Safety Research: Magnifying Silent Voices
Contributor: Seth Stephens Patient safety has always been an important part of nursing. Over the course of my twenty years as a nurse I have had the opportunity to see nurses escalate broken care processes and issues that have saved patient lives, and I’ve seen how systems errors can result in patient deaths. Several years … Continue reading Patient Safety Research: Magnifying Silent Voices
Help Us! We are Dying!
Contributor: Jenelle Marius HELP US! WE ARE DYING! As a nurse and a woman of color, I can see a lot of issues in the healthcare system from both perspectives and I employ other healthcare workers to try to see it as well. I am passionate about a lot of health and social justice issues … Continue reading Help Us! We are Dying!
This Earth Day, Let’s Consider Disposable Healthcare Devices through the Lens of the Nursing Code of Ethics
Contributor: Kristin Six, BSN, RN, CWOCNEarth Day 2023 - Saturday, April 22 Every day, nurses strive to work in line with the nursing profession’s principle of beneficence, or working to do good. But our nursing practice often directly violates another of nursing’s core ethical principles, nonmaleficence, more commonly known as “do no harm.” Single use … Continue reading This Earth Day, Let’s Consider Disposable Healthcare Devices through the Lens of the Nursing Code of Ethics
Cheap Forgiveness
Historically, bioethics began centuries ago as both a pastoral and theological enterprise within religious traditions. It was pastoral in the sense that clergy would address the questions of right and wrong, good and evil, in relation to questions of uncertainty among the faithful. It was a theological enterprise in the sense that the theologians would … Continue reading Cheap Forgiveness
A Snake in our Midst: The Constriction of Nursing Ethics by the Serpent Bioethics
It has been in our midst from the start, gliding through the thatched undergrowth of our history, now and again managing to coil itself around us, restricting our circulation, but never sufficient to stop the blood-flow to our heart. Or so some would think, though many would not notice. But indeed the snake of biomedical … Continue reading A Snake in our Midst: The Constriction of Nursing Ethics by the Serpent Bioethics
Morality Police and Steel Rape: Our Future from the 1800s
Contributor: Marsha Fowler, Ph.D., MDiv, MS, RN, FAAN The skirmishes and battles have changed, but the war has not. First wave feminists battled the constellation of the regulation of prostitutes, the control of venereal disease, and the toxic sexual double standard. Our battle today is the callous and obdurate slaughter of Roe v Wade, a … Continue reading Morality Police and Steel Rape: Our Future from the 1800s
Women’s Rights are Human Rights: Women’s Health is Human Health
On this momentous day in the United States, as we witness the blatant evil heaped on American women by the Supreme Court action to end the protection of abortion access, it is time to renew our commitment as a discipline to the optimum health and well-being of all. The U.S. now joins Russia, North Korea … Continue reading Women’s Rights are Human Rights: Women’s Health is Human Health
It’s Time We Raise Nursologists!
Report from the 2021 Virtual Nursing Theory Week Contributors:Christina NyiratiSharon Stout-Shaffer At the time of the 2021 Virtual Nursing Theory Week, Christina Nyirati and Sharon Stout-Shaffer presented the baccalaureate curriculum they designed and now implement at Heritage University located on the Yakama Reservation in Washington State. This is the only session that was recorded during … Continue reading It’s Time We Raise Nursologists!