What can nursing ethics scholarship from the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s teach us about ethical knowing in nursing today? A new collection from the Society for Nursing Ethics International (SONEI) gives us an opportunity to revisit this question. The newly developed SONEI website is featuring a series of blog posts focused on classic articles … Continue reading Revisiting the Foundations of Nursing Ethics: The ANS Ethics Collection
Nursing Ethics
Announcing – the Society for Nursing Ethics International (SONEI)
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)
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
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
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
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
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
A Firestorm for Justice
See Nursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present: An Archaeology of Lost Wisdom and Identity by Marsha D. M. Fowler I must begin with an admission that, having lost my home and my possessions to the Altadena wildfire, I have become entranced by fire in both its destructive and constructive power. Technically my home was not destroyed … Continue reading A Firestorm for Justice
Canadian Nurses and our ethical mandate: The impact of American politics
Contributors: Cameron R. Albright, Lisa Bland, Lisa Goldberg In our recently published commentary in the Halifax Examiner, “an independent, investigative, and adversarial news site” in Atlantic Canada, we three Canadian nurses address the disruptive and ethically reprehensible policies emerging from the United States (US).. By drawing attention to the Canadian Code of Ethics for Registered … Continue reading Canadian Nurses and our ethical mandate: The impact of American politics
Book Review – Nursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present: An Archaeology of Lost Wisdom and Identity
Book Review - Nursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present: An Archaeology of Lost Wisdom and Identity by Marsha D. M. Fowler, PhD, MDiv, MS, RN, FAAN One of Nursology’s assumptions—the one that is foundational to nursing as a discipline—is our assurance of who we are, what we know, and how we discover our knowledge. While … Continue reading Book Review – Nursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present: An Archaeology of Lost Wisdom and Identity
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
“We Were Made for These Times”
This is the title of Sally Thorne's editorial in Nursing Inquiry published on March 11, 2025. The editorial is "free access" - meaning that reading and downloading the PDF file is free of any cost. Her message is clear - in the face of organized and powerful assaults on human health and freedom, nurses are … Continue reading “We Were Made for These Times”
Wind, Flame, Ash, and a Pink Polka-Dot Ribbon: Lessons from the Altadena Wildfire
Dr. Marsha Fowler is a member of the Nursology.net Advisory TeamAuthor: Nursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present Marsha Fowler Until recently I lived in the 140 year old town of Altadena, California. Altadena is nestled in the foothills of the transverse range of the San Gabriel Mountains, between the San Joaquin and Whittier Narrows fault-lines. … Continue reading Wind, Flame, Ash, and a Pink Polka-Dot Ribbon: Lessons from the Altadena Wildfire
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