[Does nursing need its own ethics?].

Abstract

In contrast to a medicine and medical ethics dominated by the physician, nurses claim more professional autonomy, domains of independent responsibility and recognition of their own moral judgment and ethical reflection. In my article I endorse these claims, but I object to the widespread opinion that their fulfillment requires a nursing ethics of its own, in the sense of a specific moral theory for nursing. Such a "special ethics" would be counterproductive to the concerns of nurses, and just as mistaken as a special medical or physicians ethics. Instead, a critique of medicine on the basis of a general ethics is required both for nurses and physicians. Part I presents arguments against mistaken conceptions of a special nursing ethics. Part II outlines elements of a general ethics for medicine and nursing. Part III explains my understanding of an ethical critique of medicine, which is founded upon the distinction of three conceptual dimensions of medicine: as science, institution and practice. This critique focuses the ethical attention on the life situation of the patient. Consequences for argumentative support and political fulfillment of the nurses' claims mentioned will thereby become evident.