The Ethical Nurse by Mary Ann Siciliano McLaughlin Ed.D, MSN, RN

I would like to use this platform to review the American Nurses Association (ANA) new Code of Ethics for Nurses , "the Code " (2025). The background here is that I attended the 2015 ANA Ethics Symposium, where the ANA dubbed 2015 as the Year of Ethics . Attending that conference was pivotal for me.  Up to that point, in my dissertation, I was struggling with how to approach my literature review and study. That conference gave me great clarity and inspiration.  I worked through that conference, and continued to work once arriving home, on my dissertation topic of ethics in nursing. Now ten years later, I am excited to say that I just received my 2025 updated Code  in the mail.   My plan is to review the updated Code in sections over time. I also intend to draw parallels between the Code and my ethics model, The Siciliano-McLaughlin Model of Ethics .    The ANA states, "The Code of Ethics for Nurses (Code) establishes the ethical standard for the profes...

     Last week, when discussing ethics with prelicensure students, I had my ethics model posted.  As always, I spoke to the themes of my study and its representation in my model.  I also reviewed some ethical situations that the participants in my study discussed with me. As we spoke about each situation, we examined it through the lens of the themes. A student asked me more about the central framework of authenticity. Today, I want to think about authenticity in response to our discussion about the central framework.  The literature says that an authentic existence consists of three characteristics. The person needs to be fully aware of the present moment. The person lives in the moment by choosing how to live one’s life. The person needs to take responsibility for the choice (Corey, 1982).       These concepts lead back to, and support, Dewey’s (1909/2008) work regarding intellectual development leading to a sense of good judgment....

Hello everyone, Much has changed in the life over the last year, but one thing has remained constant - the need for professionalism and ethics in nursing remains a need and priority in our profession.   Even though my ethics in nursing dissertation study happened about ten years ago, the same concerns and worries still exist today.  Yesterday, as I sat in a meeting, those in attendance worried about ethical infractions by prelicensure students and wondered if it would be a precursor to unethical behavior in nursing practice.  That very premise was the impetus to my study.  Information about my hermeneutic phenomenological study: Title: The Experience of Accelerated Nursing Program Graduates Utilizing Ethics in Their Nursing Practice. Year of publication in ProQuest: 2016.  Purpose of the Study:  This study aimed to illuminate the meaning of the experience of accelerated nursing program graduates utilizing ethics in their nursing practice.  Rese...

A Blog Refresh: I have been in a holding pattern in my blog for some time.  However, I would like to reinstate my blog on ethics in nursing.  To begin again, I am posting my first post to set the stage for things to come.  Enjoy! Every time we hold a person responsible for what he has done, we acknowledge in effect that a deed which can be judged morally has an intimate and internal connection with the character of the one from whom the deed issued. - John Dewey, 1932/2009, p. 342  In  The Moral Self , Dewey (1932/2009)  stated: “ Selfhood or character is not a mere means, an external instrument, of attaining certain ends. . . . It is an agency of accomplishing consequences. . . . The self reveals its nature in what it chooses ” (p. 342) . This thought process is applicable to nurses as well. If, as Dewey postulates, ethics is  part of a person’s character  and therefore a part of one self, perhaps nurses can draw upon  these inherent factors...

My new article with two of my colleagues has just been published to the New Jersey Nurse & Institute for Nursing Newsletter, July 2020.  Happy reading! Teaching Nursing Students During COVID-19 Mary Ann Siciliano McLaughlin EdD, MSN, RN, Tyshaneka Saffold PhD(c), MSN, RN, & Shelley A. Johnson, EdD, MSN, MBA, RN, NE-BC, CNE   In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the landscape of nursing education is changing and evolving on a daily basis. On-ground nursing programs have been converted into an online format overnight. This change is a tall order, not just for nursing faculty, but for nursing students as well. So how, in this time of a pandemic, do nursing faculty promote ethics and integrity in students, while maintaining quality, and rigor in nursing programs to ensure student learning and adequate preparation for a future career in nursing?   Ethics is valu...

COVID-19 forced on ground nursing programs to change into an online format overnight since mid March in the United States.  This transition has been challenging to say the least.  It has been an adjustment for the nursing faculty who had to scramble to make sure they are still effectively teaching the students, and meeting instructional hours.  Decisions had to be made between how to deliver content - synchronously or asynchronously. Without a formal online teaching background, for most faculty, navigating this decision and developing alternate learning assignments was challenging.  To complicate this process further is that nursing schools are accountable to their respective State Boards of Nursing.  Plans for the semester had to be altered, put in writing to academic leadership, and then submitted to the respective State Boards of Nursing for approval.  Those plans were short term, but now as the stay at home orders persist, for those of us in year round ...