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

CONCLUSION

In this thesis I have begun an exploration of some of the virtues for nursing. I have
argued that there are good reasons for a nurse to develop inter alia the virtues of
honesty, justice, courage, trustworthiness, open-mindedness, and, perhaps most
importantly, what I have termed professional phronesis tailored and appropriate to the
practice of nursing. As a result it is incumbent on nurse teachers to provide students
with both the opportunities to cultivate these virtues and the environments that permit
the expression of these virtues. Nursing (and teaching) conceived as a practice in the
technical sense in which MacIntyre employs that term provides the kind of environment
in which these educational goals can be pursued in ways that avoid some of the tensions
between means and ends. Further, the notion of nursing as a practice is especially
helpful in the pursuit of the moral aims of nursing education because of the focus on
internal rather than external goods.

I have introduced the idea that patients are more-than-ordinarily vulnerable precisely
because they are patients and that nursing conceived as a practice is intimately involved
with enabling human flourishing. I have offered an exploration of the place of
trustworthiness and open-mindedness as professional virtues specific to the practice of
nursing and discussed how the development of these dispositions in nurses can
contribute to the aim of enabling the flourishing of more-than-ordinarily vulnerable
persons. I have suggested that while altruism may be a desirable quality in those who
seek to become nurses, it is generally a raw altruistic emotion that can only function in
beneficial ways if cultivated within a framework of virtue and reason. To know what to
do to whom, when, in what way and for what reason requires practical wisdom and not
just technical or intellectual knowledge. Thus the development of the practically wise
nurse (the professional phronimos) is a proper aim of nursing education and an
education that seeks to develop the professional phronimos is a moral education. Hence,
the idea of a moral education for nursing is of considerable importance and an idea that
all nurse teachers must take seriously if students are to be enabled to develop the sorts
of characteristics (for example, trustworthiness) that Everyman expects of nurses. It is
within this framework that the teaching of nursing takes place and within which subject
specialist teachers (including teachers of ethics) can contribute towards the goal of the
professional phronimos.

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