No Recipe For Care as a Moral Practice

As there is no recipe for nursing as a moral practice, the nurse is obliged to risk herself in order to meet the ethical demand placed on her as a professional and to preserve the vulnerable trust essential to cooperation with the patient. On the basis of research and examples from interviews with six patients and six nurses, this article discusses examples of nurses’ moral irresponsibility stemming from a lack of consciousness about the power inherent in the relationship between nurse and patient. The challenge for the nurse is to understand that the trust and power embedded in his/her meeting with patients entails a demand for attentiveness.