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

Copyrighted by Mary Ann Siciliano McLaughlin Ed.D., RN, 2017 PILLAR I: ALTRUISM 1. Altruism is "a concern for the welfare and well-being of others."  This concern and advocacy includes not only patients, but also other nurses and health care providers (AACN, 2008).   Under altruism, the students need to understand that they need to be concerned with the welfare of others including their patients. I also view altruism, as a concept, where the students really learn to advocate for their patients needs and issues.   I feel this comprises a large part of their duties as a professional nurse.   However, this pillar of altruism also includes concern for the fellow nurses and health care providers working alongside them. The most wonderful part of being a nurse, I feel, is how we get to care holistically for our patients and their families.   Nurses do not just take care of isolated problems for patients.   Rather, nurses look at the entir...

As a faculty member and an ABSN program director, I continue to attempt to develop professionalism in our future nurses.  I always speak to my students about professionalism and accountability.  I tell them that part of professionalism is accountability.  I explain that this accountability is not just accountability to the decisions they make, but also accountability to the outcomes of those decisions as well.  As a future, professional nurse, students need to understand how to be accountable for their choices and actions. While in my doctoral program, I decided to create a model of professionalism.  I called it the Pillars of Professionalism.  I have recently copyrighted this model and am beginning to disseminate my idea as an innovative strategy with which to use with students. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) (Finkelman & Kenner, 2012) report and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials of Baccalaureate Education (2008) ...

Surprisingly, in nursing education, there is a prevalent and consistent lack of professionalism and unethical behavior. However, the display of inadequate levels of professionalism and unethical behavior are not pervasive among all students. Rather, the lack of professional behavior as viewed through the lens of nursing ethics, seems to occur within discrete groups of students and is not limited to just one university. It tends to be a problem across disciplines and universities alike (Baxter & Boblin, 2007).   In speaking with other professors, from various institutions and disciplines, I do hear stories that provide confirmation of this problem.   Also, in speaking with other nursing professors we find that these same challenges exist at multiple universities.   So how can we, as nursing professors, address a lack of professionalism and unethical behavior in our nursing students?   One may ask whether some of these students enter an acce...

             Studies done with accelerated nursing students have found that this cohort of students is not only tech-savvy, experienced, and mature, but also exhibit generational differences than their faculty (Bowie & Camacho Carr, 2013). Cangelosi and Moss (2010) found two emerging themes from the faculty in accelerated nursing programs. The faculty felt as if they had to be at the top of their game to teach in accelerated programs because of the students’ level of intelligence, maturity, and lack of fear in questioning authority. Moreover, the faculty felt there was limited time for teaching accelerated students to think like nurses and socialize them into nursing (Cangelosi & Moss, 2010). The focus on accelerated programs in my study was critical because the number of accelerated programs continues to grow quickly in the United States (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2014)...

Good nursing practice requires knowledge, skill, and moral imagination. (Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, & Day, 2010, p. 166)   According to Crigger and Godfrey (2011), “Nursing practice occurs through a series of decisions; almost every decision and action of a nurse professional has an ethical import” (p. 59). Nurses are often at a crossroads and need to decide how they will act in a situation. Their decision will then result in a potentially favorable or unfavorable outcome for the patient. In nursing, this problem is further compounded by the lack of reaction time available and the immediate necessity to react to a situation at hand. Nurses need to be able to think on their feet at any given time and make the most prudent decisions they are capable of at every moment. This skill is honed as the nurse gains experience and confidence as a practicing professional. This nursing profession perspective provides the basis for how nurses execute the role of a ...

In an age of ever-changing technology, medical advances in care, and sicker patients who now live longer; nurses are experiencing the need to make a greater number of ethical decisions (Iacobucci, Daly, Lindell, & Griffin, 2012). The nursing profession is also further burdened by economics and a nursing shortage, which is likely to grow more pronounced as older nurses retire and the number of sicker patients to care for increases. These factors lead to time constraints in the care nurses are able to afford to patients. These limitations also cause nurses to feel stressed or unable to achieve ethical decision making as they wish to do at times (Ghebrehiwet, 2012; Iacobucci et al., 2012). Does this sentiment ring true in nurses?   Do you feel stressed making ethical decisions in light of these factors?   Are you too busy with caring for your patients to be able to make ethical decisions to your liking?   As always, I welcome comments and feedback...

The concept of ethics in professional nursing practice does not constitute a new thought process. Rather, professional ethics must address the nurse’s own desire to lead a good life (Higgins, 2010). Isabel Hampton Robb spoke to what she believed to be essential in the development of nursing as a profession. Robb viewed the nurse as needing scientific education, as well as, high character in an effort to care for people on a larger social scale. She viewed ethics as providing spirit and ministry to the profession. This supported her vision of developing nursing into a profession, inclusive of a code of ethics (Robb, 1900).  Crigger and Godfrey (2011) believed that professional ethics and ethics in general are intertwined with professionalism, making it difficult to always see the division between the two.  The reason for my dissertation grew out of a curiosity in this area.   I wondered when I saw breaches in ethics and integrity if those studen...