Clinical Ethics Handbook for Nurses (eBook)

This handbook provides tools for nurse educators, ethics educators, practicing nurses and allied health professionals for developing confidence and skill in ethical decision making in interdisciplinary settings such as acute and chronic care hospitals and clinics. It is useful for all healthcare personnel who face ethical issues in the course of their work and who work with nurses to resolve these issues. While the content is based on a US context, the concerns of nurses internationally are discussed and emphasized. Nurses working in acute and chronic care settings face many obstacles to providing good care and are often the first line of defense related to patient safety and meeting the needs of patients and their families. Some of the obstacles to optimal patient care are institutional, some sociocultural, and others the result of inadequate communication.  Evidence points to the idea that while nurses do have the knowledge and skills to address practice problems of various sorts, they may not be confident in their skills of ethical decision making and advocacy actions. This is a resource to develop moral agency on behalf of individuals and to address broader barriers to good care raised at the local, community, or social levels. 

Pamela Grace is an experienced nurse, nurse educator and ethics scholar. She completed a PhD in Philosophy with a concentration in medical ethics (1998). Over the past 25 years she has written and presented extensively on the topics of nursing philosophy, and nursing and healthcare ethics. Her book on ethics in advanced practice nursing received the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Society national book award in the category of Health Sciences. As an Emerita faculty member of Boston College Connell School of Nursing, Massachusetts, USA, she continues to teach ethics courses on a part time basis and is involved in national and international projects to develop the ethics expertise of those responsible for educating nurses.

Aimee Milliken, PhD, RN is a Clinical Associate Professor at the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College. She is formerly the Executive Director of the Ethics Service at a large academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She practiced as a critical care nurse for over a decade. She received her PhD from Boston College and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical ethics. She has published and presented nationally and internationally on the topics of nursing ethics and clinical ethics.

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This handbook provides tools for nurse educators, ethics educators, practicing nurses and allied health professionals for developing confidence and skill in ethical decision making in interdisciplinary settings such as acute and chronic care hospitals and clinics. It is useful for all healthcare personnel who face ethical issues in the course of their work and who work with nurses to resolve these issues. While the content is based on a US context, the concerns of nurses internationally are discussed and emphasized. Nurses working in acute and chronic care settings face many obstacles to providing good care and are often the first line of defense related to patient safety and meeting the needs of patients and their families. Some of the obstacles to optimal patient care are institutional, some sociocultural, and others the result of inadequate communication.  Evidence points to the idea that while nurses do have the knowledge and skills to address practice problems of various sorts, they may not be confident in their skills of ethical decision making and advocacy actions. This is a resource to develop moral agency on behalf of individuals and to address broader barriers to good care raised at the local, community, or social levels.