Nursing with integrity

• Main Author: De Raeve, A. L.
• Published: Swansea University 1999
• Subjects: 615.5
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.636429

This thesis uses a philosophical method of enquiry to engage in a conceptual exploration of some significant features of the nature of integrity within nursing. Since integrity is understood in its moral sense and nursing, it is argued, is an intrinsically moral activity, the thesis is also normative. Integrity is considered to be a higher or second order virtue which contributes to the realisation of other moral goals, rather than being an end in itself. For this reason much of the thesis concerns the nature of care in nursing and an exploration of what it is to be a good nurse. However, particular issues are examined which help to illuminate the concept of integrity in nursing because they seem to offer interesting challenges to it. The thesis focuses primarily on the world of general nursing and on situations where nurses can be said to have relationships with the patients they nurse. It is argued that there is a conceptually intimate connection between caring for and caring about and through an analysis of trust and trustworthiness in nurse-patient relationships, this argument is strengthened to suggest that there are conceptual as well as moral reasons why nurses engaged in relationships with patients that persist over time, need to care about as well as for their patients. It is argued that this is not just a requirement of good nursing but that it is necessary to help to ensure that acceptable rather than negligent nursing can be sustained. One section of the thesis considers how nurses could be helped to develop and maintain such an attitude to their patients.