Ethics in Nursing: Cases, Principles, and Reasoning

Starting with detailed cases based on real life, the fourth edition of Ethics in Nursing introduces the principles, concepts, and reasoning needed to think them through. Changes in this edition reflect important developments in nursing, ethical theory, and nursing ethics. Among the expanded set of 64 cases, 22 have been significantly revised and 15 are entirely new. Reasoning skills and philosophical understanding are explained and illustrated in cases involving: nurses and clients; inter-professional relationships; personal responsibility for institutional and public policy; and cost containment, justice, and rationing. New material on ethical theory includes an illustrated explanation and defense of moral pluralism, a section on the ethics of care, and an expanded discussion of reflective equilibrium as a method of ethical reasoning. New topics include pandemics and care for SARS patients, elderly patients contemplating suicide, and workplace violence. As with previous editions, both the nursing and philosophical content are self-contained, making the book accessible to readers with little or no background in either. Ethics in Nursing provides practicing and student nurses with a useful introduction to the identification and analysis of ethical issues that reflects both the special perspective of nursing and the value of systematic philosophical inquiry.

Martin Benjamin is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Michigan State University
Joy Curtis is Emerita Professor of Nursing and Emerita University Ombudsman, Michigan State University