•  87
    Imagination in practice
    Journal of Medical Ethics 23 (1): 45-50. 1997.
    Current focus in the health care ethics literature on the character of the practitioner has a reputable pedigree. Rather than offer a staple diet of Aristotelian ethics in the undergraduate curricula, perhaps instead one should follow Murdoch's suggestion and help the practitioner to develop vision and moral imagination, because this has a practical rather than a theoretical aim. The imaginative capacity of the practitioner plays an important part in both the quality of the nurse's role enactmen…Read more
  •  76
    What is nursing in the 21st century and what does the 21st century health system require of nursing?
    with Anne Matthews and Marcia Kirwan
    Nursing Philosophy 15 (1): 23-34. 2014.
    It is frequently claimed that nursing is vital to the safe, humane provision of health care and health service to our populations. It is also recognized however, that nursing is a costly health care resource that must be used effectively and efficiently. There is a growing recognition, from within the nursing profession, health care policy makers and society, of the need to analyse the contribution of nursing to health care and its costs. This becomes increasingly pertinent and urgent in a situa…Read more
  •  61
    Patient autonomy and choice in healthcare: self-testing devices as a case in point
    with Anna-Marie Greaney and Dónal P. O’Mathúna
    Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 15 (4): 383-395. 2012.
    This paper aims to critique the phenomenon of advanced patient autonomy and choice in healthcare within the specific context of self-testing devices. A growing number of self-testing medical devices are currently available for home use. The premise underpinning many of these devices is that they assist individuals to be more autonomous in the assessment and management of their health. Increased patient autonomy is assumed to be a good thing. We take issue with this assumption and argue that self…Read more
  •  45
    Aristotle, Nursing and Health Care Ethics
    Nursing Ethics 2 (4): 279-285. 1995.
    Even a brief consideration of the nature of nursing will indicate that an ethical dimension underlies much, if not all, of nursing practice. It is therefore important that students and practitioners are facilitated in developing an ethical awareness and sensitivity from early in their professional development. This paper argues that Aristotelian virtue theory provides a practice-based focus for health care ethics for a number of reasons. Also, because of his emphasis on the character of the mora…Read more
  •  42
    Diagnostic self-testing devices are being developed for many illnesses, chronic diseases and infections. These will be used in hospitals, at point-of-care facilities and at home. Designed to allow earlier detection of diseases, self-testing diagnostic devices may improve disease prevention, slow the progression of disease and facilitate better treatment outcomes. These devices have the potential to benefit both the individual and society by enabling individuals to take a more proactive role in t…Read more
  •  35
    Emotion, moral perception, and nursing practice
    Nursing Philosophy 1 (2): 123-133. 2000.
    Many of the activities of clinical practice happen to, with or upon vulnerable human beings. For this reason numerous nursing authors draw attention to or claim a significant moral domain in clinical practice. A number of nursing authors also discuss the emotional involvement and/or emotional labour which is often experienced in clinical practice. In this article I explore the importance of emotion for moral perception and moral agency. I suggest that an aspect of being a good nurse is having an…Read more
  •  34
    Nursing ethics through the life span (review)
    Journal of Medical Ethics 29 (4). 2003.
  •  30
    Autonomy, Power, and Control in Palliative Care
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 8 (2): 139-147. 1999.
    A review of the literature on palliative care in the United Kingdom over the last fifteen years suggests that elements such as the development of the modern hospice, on the model developed by Cicely Saunders, have led to major improvements in the lot of the terminally ill
  •  28
    Resource allocation and rationing in nursing care: A discussion paper
    with Clare Harvey, Heike Felzmann, Riitta Suhonen, Monika Habermann, Kristin Halvorsen, Karin Christiansen, Luisa Toffoli, and Evridiki Papastavrou
    Nursing Ethics 26 (5): 1528-1539. 2019.
    Driven by interests in workforce planning and patient safety, a growing body of literature has begun to identify the reality and the prevalence of missed nursing care, also specified as care left undone, rationed care or unfinished care. Empirical studies and conceptual considerations have focused on structural issues such as staffing, as well as on outcome issues – missed care/unfinished care. Philosophical and ethical aspects of unfinished care are largely unexplored. Thus, while international…Read more
  •  28
    Compromise and Its Limits
    Nursing Ethics 4 (2): 147-157. 1997.
    Compromise as a notion is frequently met in discussion and debate regarding many everyday decisions, including health care. It therefore seems that it may be of interest and value to try to give this some careful consideration. In the following pages, an attempt is made to discuss what one might mean when one uses this concept. Consideration is then given to some possible uses of compromise in health care. Having suggested that in certain situations compromise is a morally valuable process, the …Read more
  •  28
    This paper situates the moral domain of practice within the context of a particular description of nursing practice – one that sees human interaction at the heart of that practice. Such a description fits not only with professional rhetoric but also with literature from patients and recent empirical work exploring the nature of nursing practice.Martha Levine in her 1977 description of ethics, within the context of nursing practice, indicated that what was important from an ethical perspective wa…Read more
  •  27
    Perceptions of Autonomy in the Care of Elderly People in Five European Countries
    with Maritta Välimäki, Helena Leino-Kilpi, Theo Dassen, Maria Gasull, Chryssoula Lemonidou, Marianne Arndt, Anja Schopp, Riitta Suhonen, and Anne Kaljonen
    Nursing Ethics 10 (1): 28-38. 2003.
    The focus of this article is perceptions of elderly patients and nurses regarding patients’ autonomy in nursing practice. Autonomy is empirically defined as having two components: information received/given as a prerequisite and decision making as the action. The results indicated differences between staff and patient perceptions of patient autonomy for both components in all five countries in which this survey was conducted. There were also differences between countries in the perceptions of pa…Read more
  •  27
    Perceptions of Privacy in the Care of Elderly People in Five European Countries
    with Anja Schopp, Helena Leino-Kilpi, Maritta Välimäki, Theo Dassen, Maria Gasull, Chryssoula Lemonidou, Marianne Arndt, and Anne Kaljonen
    Nursing Ethics 10 (1): 39-47. 2003.
    The focus of this article is on elderly patients’ and nursing staff perceptions of privacy in the care of elderly patients/residents in five European countries. Privacy includes physical, social and informational elements. The results show that perceptions of privacy were strongest in the UK (Scotland) and weakest in Greece. Country comparisons revealed statistically significant differences between the perceptions of elderly patients and also between those of nurses working in the same ward or l…Read more
  •  26
    Perceptions of Autonomy, Privacy and Informed Consent in the Care of Elderly People in Five European Countries: comparison and implications for the future
    with Helena Leino-Kilpi, Maritta Välimäki, Theo Dassen, Maria Gasull, Chryssoula Lemonidou, Anja Schopp, Marianne Arndt, and Anne Kaljonen
    Nursing Ethics 10 (1): 58-66. 2003.
    This article discusses nurses’ and elderly patients’ perceptions of the realization of autonomy, privacy and informed consent in five European countries. Comparisons between the concepts and the countries indicated that both nurses and patients gave the highest ratings to privacy and the lowest to informed consent. There were differences between countries. According to the patient data, autonomy is best realized in Spain, privacy in the UK (Scotland), and informed consent in Finland. For the sta…Read more
  •  25
    Niven and Scott (2003): Sixteen years of hindsight
    Nursing Philosophy 20 (3). 2019.
    This paper revisits a 2003 publication in Nursing Philosophy: The need for accurate perception and informed judgement in determining the appropriate use of the nursing resource: hearing the patient's voice. The author suggests that the basic ideas and focus of this 16‐year‐old paper are still topical and relevant in considerations of nursing care. However, it is also suggested that greater attention to the importance of the nurse–patient relationship in considerations of resource allocation, and…Read more
  •  25
    Moral injury in healthcare professionals: A scoping review and discussion
    with Anto Čartolovni, Minna Stolt, and Riitta Suhonen
    Nursing Ethics 28 (5): 590-602. 2021.
    Moral injury emerged in the healthcare discussion quite recently because of the difficulties and challenges healthcare workers and healthcare systems face in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moral injury involves a deep emotional wound and is unique to those who bear witness to intense human suffering and cruelty. This article aims to synthesise the very limited evidence from empirical studies on moral injury and to discuss a better understanding of the concept of moral injury, its importan…Read more
  •  24
    Perceptions of Autonomy, Privacy and Informed Consent in the Care of Elderly People in Five European Countries: general overview
    with Helena Leino-Kilpi, Maritta Välimäki, Theo Dassen, Maria Gasull, Chryssoula Lemonidou, Anja Schopp, Marianne Arndt, and Anne Kaljonen
    Nursing Ethics 10 (1): 18-27. 2003.
    Ethical issues in the care of elderly people have been identified in many countries. We report the findings of a comparative research project funded by the European Commission, which took place between 1998 and 2001. The project explored the issues of autonomy (part I), privacy (part II) and informed consent (part III) in nursing practice. Data were collected from elderly residents/patients (n = 573) and nursing staff (n = 887) in five European countries: Finland, Spain, Greece, Germany and the …Read more
  •  23
    Perceptions of Informed Consent in the Care of Elderly People in Five European Countries
    with Anja Schopp, Maritta Välimäki, Helena Leino-Kilpi, Theo Dassen, Maria Gasull, Chryssoula Lemonidou, Marianne Arndt, and Anne Kaljonen
    Nursing Ethics 10 (1): 48-57. 2003.
    The focus of this article is on elderly patients’ and nursing staff perceptions of informed consent in the care of elderly patients/residents in five European countries. The results suggest that patients and nurses differ in their views on how informed consent is implemented. Among elderly patients the highest frequency for securing informed consent was reported in Finland; the lowest was in Germany. In contrast, among nurses, the highest frequency was reported in the UK (Scotland) and the lowes…Read more
  •  20
    Do We Still Need Doctors?
    Nursing Philosophy 2 (1): 90-91. 2001.
  •  20
    Ethics Education and Nursing Practice
    Nursing Ethics 3 (1): 53-63. 1996.
    This paper suggests that a consideration of health care practice is a necessary step in gaining insight into the appropriate composition of an ethics course for students in the health care professional. Health care practice, if it responds to the needs of society, is dynamic in nature. In the current climate of change in the health service, the author sug gests that the nursing profession needs to become more proactive in analysing and attempting to determine the future shape of nursing. To prot…Read more
  •  16
    The Lourdes Hospital Inquiry: An inquiry into peripartum hysterectomy at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Ireland, of 2006 recounts in detail the circumstances within which 188 peripartum hysterectomies were carried out at the hospital between 1974 and 1998. The findings of the inquiry have serious ramifications for Irish healthcare delivery and have implications for many professional groups, including midwives. The findings prompt clear questions about the relative position or power of m…Read more
  •  14
    Professional Ethics: are we on the wrong track?
    Nursing Ethics 5 (6): 477-496. 1998.
    Are we on the wrong track, in terms of our expectations of a code of practice, professional ethics teaching or the wider field of moral philosophy, in our search for clear answers to the ethical problems that arise in clinical practice; or are we simply wrong in believing that there are always clear answers? This article examines a particular case, an account of which appeared in Nursing Standard at the end of 1996. The conclusion reached is that we are likely to be misguided in assuming that th…Read more
  •  13
    Modes of rationality in nursing documentation: biology, biography and the 'voice of nursing'
    with Abbey Hyde, Margaret Treacy, Michelle Butler, Jonathan Drennan, Kate Irving, Anne Byrne, Padraig MacNeela, and Marian Hanrahan
    Nursing Inquiry 12 (2): 66-77. 2005.
    Modes of rationality in nursing documentation: biology, biography, and the ‘voice of nursing’ This article is based on a discourse analysis of the complete nursing records of 45 patients, and concerns the modes of rationality that mediated text‐based accounts relating to patient care that nurses recorded. The analysis draws on the work of the critical theorist, Jürgen Habermas, who conceptualised rationality in the context of modernity according to two types: purposive rationality based on an in…Read more
  •  13
    Professional Ethics: are we on the wrong track?
    Nursing Ethics 5 (6): 477-485. 1998.
    Are we on the wrong track, in terms of our expectations of a code of practice, professional ethics teaching or the wider field of moral philosophy, in our search for clear answers to the ethical problems that arise in clinical practice; or are we simply wrong in believing that there are always clear answers?This article examines a particular case, an account of which appeared in Nursing Standard at the end of 1996. The conclusion reached is that we are likely to be misguided in assuming that the…Read more
  •  12
    Nursing minimum data sets: a conceptual analysis and review
    with Padraig Mac Neela, Margaret P. Treacy, and Abbey Hyde
    Nursing Inquiry 13 (1): 44-51. 2006.