The Nature of Nursing Ethics Embedded in the Role of Clinical Nurse Ethicists

AbstractNursing ethics is the "native wildflower of the soil of nursing." The larger clinical ethics multidisciplinary community (e.g., nursing, medicine, bioethics, theology) brings a plurality of perceptions to the bedside. The clinical nurse ethicist role, a synergy between nursing and moral philosophies, cannot be deconstructed. Nursing ethics is the relational narrative (Gadow) that summons nursing's moral sense (Bishop), focuses our gaze with compassionate respect (Farley), fosters the positive enterprise (Fowler), answers the moral call (Carse), and summons nursing's internal morality (Taylor) to foster human flourishing (Jacobs). A suffering patient with an issue of moral relevance is the same person whether a nurse or a physician responds. What is unique is the nature of the response. A nursing response grounded in the morality internal to nursing ethics is not bioethics or medical ethics but another distinct voice in the moral discourse. We explore the legacy of nursing ethics, highlighting its contribution to clinical ethics. A focus on nursing has the heightened potential to resolve moral challenges using a different lens than traditional principle- and theory-based bioethics. Nursing ethics predates bioethics, with twice the amount of history. We aim to democratize the knowledge of nursing ethics to foster human flourishing of patients, providers, and society as a whole.