ABSTRACT
This chapter examines extant literature on nursing ethics, with a specific focus on virtue-based understandings of the ethical nurse. Taking the view that nursing ethics is best approached from a virtue-based perspective, the chapter considers character-based approaches to nursing ethics – including the concept of phronesis. While focusing largely on the character of ‘good’ nurses, the chapter also considers the role of codes of conduct as well as contextual features identified within existing literature that are identified as impacting on the ethical conduct of nurses in healthcare settings. In focusing on the ethical dimensions of nursing, the chapter sets a platform for the empirical data and analysis presented in Chapters 3 and 4.
