Clinical Nurse Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center Thetford, Vermont
Abstract: The ethical commitments of bedside nurses toward their patients are explicit, identified clearly in the American Nurses’ Association Code of Ethics; however, the ethical obligations of nurse leaders toward the staff in their charge lacks clarity. Despite this, nurse leaders serve a pivotal role in the retention of qualified nurses and the cultivation of an ethical hospital climate, notable challenges in the post-COVID landscape. Across practice areas, the profession of nursing has seen migration to lower stress positions and increased attrition from the profession entirely, in part due to factors such as burnout and moral distress. In order to address these critical issues, nurse leaders must recognize and execute the ethical responsibilities associated with their position. Through this presentation we seek to explicate the expanded ethical obligations of nurse leaders toward frontline clinical staff, drawing on concepts of care ethics, a duty to care, and principlism, in order to develop a conceptual framework of responsibility for this unique nursing role.
Keywords: nurse leaders, care ethics, ethical obligations
Learning Objectives:
After participating in this conference, attendees should be able to:
Upon completion, paticipant will be able to describe the expanded ethical obligations of nurse leaders toward their staff.
Upon completion, participants will be able to distinguish the way the duty to care applies for nurse leaders from that of the bedside nurse.
Upon completion, paticipants will be able to apply the conceptual framework to ethical challenges in nursing leadership.
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