The Ethic of Care: Our Moral Compass

Chapter One forms the foundation for everything that follows. The ethic of care, or the moral imperative to act justly, is presented as a moral compass to guide nurses when making ethical choices. Nurses are inspired to adopt the ethic of care into their practice and into their everyday lives as a lived virtue. Ethics is defined. A brief overview of the philosophical ethical theories of utilitarianism and deontology are presented followed by an explanation of the origins of the ethic of care. A connection is drawn between the ethic of care and the theoretical premises of feminism, humanism and phenomenology because they all pay attention to the contextual features of people’s lives. The ethic of justice is compared with the ethic of care. A supported argument is made that the ethic of care is still valid for today’s nurses. Watson’s caritas dimensions of healing practice are presented. It was revealed that Florence Nightingale was a strong proponent of virtue ethics, which laid the foundation for the ethic of care. Special attention is given to specific multifaceted concepts associated with care as demonstrated by three theorists: Mayerhoff, Perlman & Stephany. The Chapter ends with a Case in Point where a student nurse is assigned the challenging task of caring for a client diagnosed with a catatonic type of schizophrenia.

Keywords: Acceptance, Act utilitarianism, Applied nursing ethics, Act deontology, Autonomy, Alternating rhythms, Beneficence, Caritas, Categorical imperatives, Consequentialism, Caring, Courage, Caring-concern, Compassion, Distributive justice, Deontology, Esthetics, Ethic of care, Ethic of justice, Ethics, Empathy, Feminism, Florence Nightingale, Genuineness, Generosity, Hypothetical imperatives, Honesty, Humanism, Humility, Hope, Justice, Kantianism, Knowledge, Logic, Maxim, Morals, Metaphysics, Morality, Nightingale, Narratives, Non-maleficence, Presencing, Politics, Philosophy, Principlism, Phenomenology, Patience, Rule utilitarianism, Rule deontology, Trustworthy, Unconditional Positive Regard, Utilitarianism, Virtue ethics, Warmth.