and refusal to undertake a task for which one is not competent when asked to do so by a
more senior professional who says she or he will take responsibility can make a nurse
unpopular and result in a reputation of being ‘difficult’. Following the code in these
sorts of circumstances (which are not unusual) requires a great deal of courage. Without
courage nurses will be tempted to ‘give in’ to these pressures: the desire to conform to
local norms and to be accepted, the need to get a good reference, and the wish not to
have to battle everyday at work can all weaken the will to practice in ways consistent
with the code. As a result bad practice can insidiously creep into the everyday activities
of nurses to the detriment of the care and protection of more-than-ordinarily vulnerable
persons. Those who have, or who aim for, the virtues of honesty, justice and courage
will be better able to recognise corrupting influences and better able to act in honest,
just and courageous ways. It seems we have good reason for asking nurses to cultivate
the virtues because such nurses are better able to withstand pressures that might
otherwise corrupt.
As I suggested earlier in this chapter, the virtues of honesty, justice and courage are
relatively Uncontentious and, as noted above, those nurses who are disposed to act in
cohort with these virtues will be in a relatively strong position to resist practice-
corrupting influences. Honesty, justice and courage are centrally important in the
practice of nursing but there are other necessary dispositions. In Chapters 4 and 5 I offer
an account of trustworthiness and open-mindedness respectively and I provide an
outline of the important place of these two particular dispositions in the practice of
nursing.
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