ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to explore the ethical dimension of the clinical decisions that mental health nurses make on a daily basis. Mental health nurses may not always recognise that the decisions they make have an ethical dimension. In other words, this dimension tends to be hidden (Smith 2012b). This does not mean mental health nurses are not ethical in their practice, however they may not fully recognise the context they practice within, where ‘a fully conscious adult patient of normal intelligence may be treated without consent, not for the protection of others (though this is also possible) but in their own interests’ (Fulford 2009: 62).
