As stated in Chapter 1, the idea of internalisation suggests that as well as a requirement
for knowledge of the NMC code of professional conduct, education for nursing should
aim to inculcate in students the values inherent in that code in order that they
characteristically behave in particular ways; particular ways, that is, that we can only
assume are part of what the NMC understand as being of good character. But if this is to
be more than mere indoctrination then students need to be convinced that being of good
character is a necessary aspect of ensuring their altruistic emotions are developed for the
benefit rather than the detriment of patients. This is to say, that students need to be
convinced that a good nurse is one who has cultivated those virtues identified as
necessary for the practice of nursing.
There is a great deal of further work to be done about the meaning, and about the how
and when of the measurement, of good character in students of nursing. Becoming an
ethical practitioner is indeed a noble aim but this aim does not yet seem to be translated
in any explicit way into the curriculum; further it is a noble idea about which nurses
themselves appear to experience some ambiguity. Certainly what the NMC understands
by its own moral requirements is insufficiently spelled out. I hope that this thesis makes
a positive contribution to the debate about what we understand as a nurse of good
character, and further, a positive contribution to understanding of what an education that
explicitly aims to produce such nurses would involve.
There are a number of possible avenues for future empirical as well as further
conceptual work that might evolve from this thesis. Amongst other things, there is scope
for empirical work around important issues of recruitment, selection and retention of
students; about expectations in relation to trust relationships between patients and
nurses; about preparation for teachers of nurses; and about curriculum developments,
particularly in relation to teaching for trustworthiness and open-mindedness. Further
conceptual work includes the need to clarify what is meant by a nurse of good character
as well as further detailed work on the nature of professional virtues for nursing
practice. But, perhaps most importantly, if it is right that nurse education seeks to ensure
ethical practitioners then future work needs to address how best we might enable
nursing students to learn how to accept their own responsibilities for future learning.
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