Guide to the Code of Ethics for Nurses

Marsha Fowler, PhD, M.Div., MS, RN, FAAN is Professor of Ethics and Spirituality, Azusa Pacific University. She was a Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Fellow in Medical Ethics, Harvard, 1978 and the 1992 recipient of the ANA Honorary Human Rights Award. She has researched and taught ethics since 1973 and is internationally recognized for her work in the history and development of nursing’s ethics, codes of ethics, social ethics, religion and ethics, bioethics, and suffering.

Introduction. Provisions, Decisions, and Cases: Getting to What Is Right and Good
The Nursing Process, Models of Ethical Decision-Making, and Using the Cases
Suggested Questions for Case Discussions
Concluding Remarks
Provision 1. Affirming Health through Relationships of Dignity and Respect Introduction
1.1 Respect For Human Dignity
1.2 Relationships with Patients
1.3 The Nature of Health
1.4 The Right to Self-Determination
1.5 Relationships with Colleagues and Others
Provision 2. The Patient as Nursing’s Foundational Commitment
2.1 Primacy of the Patient's Interests
2.2 Conflict of Interest for Nurses
2.3 Collaboration
2.4 Professional Boundaries
Provision 3. Advocacy’s Geography
3.1 Protection of the Rights of Privacy and Confidentiality
3.2 Protection of Human Participants in Research
3.3 Performance Standards and Review Mechanisms
3.4 Professional Responsibility in Promoting a Culture of Safety
3.5 Protection of Patient Health and Safety by Acting on Questionable Practice
3.6 Patient Protection and Impaired Practice
Provision 4. The Expectations of Expertise
4.1 Authority, Accountability, and Responsibility
4.2 Accountability for Nursing Judgments, Decisions, and Actions
4.3 Responsibility for Nursing Judgments, Decisions, and Actions
4.4 Assignment and Delegation of Nursing Activities or Tasks
Provision 5. The Nurse as Person of Dignity and Worth
5.1 Duties to Self and Others
5.2 Promotion of Personal Health, Safety, and Well-Being
5.3 Preservation of Wholeness of Character
5.4 Preservation of Integrity
5.5 Maintenance of Competence and Continuation of Professional Growth
5.6 Continuation of Personal Growth
Provision 6. The Moral Milieu of Nursing Practice
6.1 The Environment and Moral Virtue
6.2 The Environment and Ethical Obligation
6.3 Responsibility for the Healthcare Environment
Provision 7. Diverse Contributions to the Profession
7.1 Contributions through Research and Scholarly Inquiry
7.2 Contributions through Developing, Maintaining, and Implementing Professional Practice Standards
7.3 Contributions through Nursing and Health Policy Development
Provision 8. Collaboration to Reach for Greater Ends
8.1 Health Is a Universal Right
8.2 Collaboration for Health, Human Rights, and Health Diplomacy
8.3 Obligation to Advance Health and Human Rights and Reduce Disparities
8.4 Collaboration for Human Rights in Complex, Extreme, or Extraordinary Practice Settings
Provision 9. Social Justice: Reaching Out to a World in Need of Nursing
9.1 Articulation and Assertion of Values
9.2 Integrity of the Profession
9.3 Integrating Social Justice
9.4 Social Justice in Nursing and Health Policy
Appendix A. Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive
Statements (2015)