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

claim that it is appropriate to consider patients, by definition, to be τnore-than-
Ordinarily vulnerable. Further, I claim that it is helpful to understand nursing as a
response to the additional human vulnerability that comes with being a patient. Being
more-than-ordinarily vulnerable compromises the possibility for human flourishing in
ways that being ordinarily vulnerable does not. If nursing actions are predicated on
ideas of minimizing the effects of patients’ additional vulnerability or of reducing
patients’ vulnerabilities to particular and knowable risks of harm then it would be true
to say that one legitimate aim of nursing is the promotion of human flourishing for
more-than-ordinarily vulnerable persons.

All people are vulnerable ...

That human beings are vulnerable is a self-evident truth. It is to state the obvious to note
that all biological entities are at risk from harm precisely because of the nature of the
environment in which biology is possible. Despite some quite remarkable powers of
adaptation all living organisms operate in an environment where dangers exist. The
dangers to which human beings are exposed can be categorised in different ways but
any classification of the risks of harm must take account of those that are inter alia
physical, psychological, social, internal and external. Thus vulnerability is part of the
human condition and harm may come from many sources. IfMaslow (1968) is to be
believed we strive to satisfy our most basic needs for safety and security at the expense
of all else (assuming food and water to be part of safety and security) in the attempt to
minimise our vulnerability. But we are never entirely free from the possibility of being
harmed no matter how far we organise our environments) to protect us from the
vicissitudes of everyday living.

However, our vulnerability is not a constant. We are vulnerable in different ways at
different times to different sorts of threats of harm. We are able to take more or less
effective actions in the attempt to reduce our vulnerabilities as we negotiate our way
through our lives. When we are new bom infants we are arguably at our most
vulnerable for at that time our dependency on others to protect us from harm is absolute.
If we are fortunate enough to develop and grow in ways that we have come to
understand as normal then we reduce our dependency on others for protection in ways
that mark out our transitions on the way to adulthood and maturity. But this is not a
mere linear progression as, on the way, we will inevitably have occasion to fall back
upon dependency in some form and we may ultimately return to a state of total

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