Understanding Ethics for Nursing Students

This book helps nursing students understand how ethics is central to the role of a nurse, and how to apply ethical thinking and decision-making to provide, safe, effective and patient-centred care.

Ethics is at the heart of nursing practice and an understanding of it and what it means for nursing is essential from early in the career of any nurse. However, ethical concepts can be hard to grasp for those new to the subject. This book explains ethical ideas in easy to understand terms and relates ethics to day-to-day nursing situations to help readers apply principles to their practice. The book also challenges readers to consider their own values and where ethics fits into who they are and how they behave.
Key features include:

- an introductory guide to ethics to help students and those new to the subject understand how it applies to nursing

- the linking of each chapter to the latest NMC standards relating to ethical issues

- case studies and scenarios that show how to resolve real ethical dilemmas

- activities throughout to challenge readers to apply what they have learnt to their own practice.

Introduction Introducing EthicsUsing Reflection to Develop Inductive Ethical UnderstandingWhat Ethics Is and What Ethics Is NotTheories of EthicsRightsKey Areas in Healthcare Ethics (Protecting and Promoting Autonomy)Dilemmas at the Start and End of LifeYour Ethical FutureGlossary