Nursing Ethics during COVID-19 Pandemic: Focusing on the Ethics of Care

Abstract

The ethic of care in nursing presupposes a narrative understanding of patients in vulnerable situations. This ethic has both has both reciprocal and protective ethical dimensions. The ethics of reciprocity guides the relationship between nurses and patients such that each influences the other toward a good life and thereby helps to create an ethical narrative. A protective ethic calls for protecting the patient’s identity and responding to predicaments in which the dignity of the person is threatened. In particular, nurses are sometimes asked to provide existential advocacy for their patients. Moreover, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where patient safety is a top priority, nurses must understand the existential threats facing patients and provide holistic care as existential advocates for patients and their families. However, it may be too much to require constant dedication and sacrifice from nurses. This article argues that it is important to establish an institutional support system for staffing, professional education, and self-care so that nurses can practice holistic care as professionals, rather than as “angels” or “heroes”. The ethics of care can contribute to self-growth and professional development toward a good life for both patients and nurses.