Nursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present An Archaeology of Lost Wisdom and Identity

This important text draws on decades of research, arguing that modern nursing germinated and grew an ethics from its own native soil, which is rich, fulsome, and philosophically informed, grounded in the tradition and practice of nursing.

It is an ethics with a positive agenda for the good nurse, a good society, a healthy people, and human flourishing. This native nursing ethics was forgotten, creating space for a foreign bioethics? colonization of nursing in the second half of the twentieth century. Drawing from a wide range of sources from the USA, the UK, Canada, and Ireland, the book addresses the early and enduring ethical concerns, values, and ideals of nursing as a profession that engages in direct clinical practice and in developing policy. Fowler calls for reclaiming and renewing nursing?s ethical tradition.

This systematic and comprehensive book is an essential contribution for students and scholars of nursing ethics.

Introduction. 1. Education in Nursing Ethics: Sturdy Standards. Appendix I: 1915 NLN Ethics Requirements Supporting Textbooks for Faculty. 2. An Archeology of the Nursing Ethics Literature: Digging Up Textbooks. Appendix II: Full Working List of Early Works on Nursing Ethics and Ethics in Nursing, 1900–1960s, Listed Chronologically by First Edition. 3. The Nursing Ethics Literature: More to Read. 4. Nursing Ethics as Social Ethics: Moral Courage on the March. Appendix III: Author’s Note and 1909 ICN Speeches by Albinia Broderick, Lavinia Dock, and Mary Burr. 5. An Unauthorized Biography of Bioethics: Its Social Context. 6. Nursing’s Nescient Embrace of a Nascent Bioethics. Appendix IV: Legal Cases That Contributed to US Medio-Moral Law. 7. Nursing Ethics in the United Kingdom: 1888 to 1960s (with a Nod to Canada). 8. Nursing Ethics before Bioethics: Prologue to the Future. 9. Studying Expert Ethical Comportment and Preserving the Ethics of Care and Responsibility Embedded in Expert Nursing Practice by Patricia Benner. 10. A Closet Full of Ethics for Seasonal Wear. 11. Voices and Vignettes. Afterword.

Marsha Fowler is Emerita Professor of Ethics. She holds the honorific “Code Scholar and Historian” for her foundational and ongoing work on the Code of Ethics for Nurses (American Nurses Association). She was also a consultant for the most recent International Council of Nursing Code of Ethics for Nursing (2021).