Philosophical Perspectives on Trustworthiness and Open-mindedness as Professional Virtues for the Practice of Nursing: Implications for he Moral Education of Nurses

an educational scheme designed to encourage open-mindedness is the lecture in which
the teacher brings to bear (in ways the students can understand) the particular ‘truth-
acquiring’ processes of the discipline on whatever ‘facts’, ‘concepts’ or ‘ideas’ are the
subject of the lecture. This would involve not only bringing to the attention of the
students the evidence for and against a particular truth claim, articulating the arguments
for and against a particular conceptual claim and so on but also subjecting those claims
to careful scrutiny using the specific criteria of the discipline itself. As O’Hear points
out “All subjects have standards internal to them, but what should be emphasized .. .is
that these standards have a moral side to them” (O’Hear 1998 p.12). Thus outlining the
standards of the discipline exposes students both to the content of the discipline and to
the standards of excellence of the discipline. It exposes students to the virtues of the
teacher as professional phronimos as she or he demonstrates how the standards of the
discipline rely on the open-mindedness of scholars working within the discipline. Being
open-minded is demonstrated by the ability of scholars to engage with evidence and
argument both for and against the claims of the discipline. Honesty will be illustrated in
the commitment shown to recognising that there is contrary as well as supporting
evidence and argument; justice, by allowing contrary evidence and argument a fair
hearing; and courage by a willingness to review (and amend or change) the claims and
beliefs of the discipline in the light of compelling evidence. In addition, the virtuous
teacher can demonstrate all these things (together with trustworthiness) in the classroom
by the way she or he deals with objections from the students. The teacher as
professionalphronimos is willing and able to engage with student objections to ‘truth’
claims of the discipline by using the same processes as outlined above. Responses of
this kind to student objections and questions demonstrates respect for students as
(potential or actual) members of the critical academic community of the discipline.
From this it is possible that students might gain some insight into the value of the
internal goods available to members of that academic community. In addition, this type
of positive response to student engagement lays the ground for the development of trust
between lecturer and student. And if the student begins to see the lecturer as trustworthy
then some learning of what trustworthiness requires is likely and may be something the
learner subsequently strives to become in emulation of the professional phronimos.

Thus, education for professional phronesis in nursing is a form of moral education and
requires that nurse teachers take seriously their obligations in this respect. The nature of
this moral education is to be distinguished from moral training which, while

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