What nurse bioethicists bring to bioethics: The journey of a nurse bioethicist

Abstract

Nurses, one of the most trusted professional groups in our society, work with patients and their families at all stages of the illness trajectory. Nurse bioethicists are a small but special subset of the nursing profession and bioethics community, focusing on the moral complexities that arise in clinical care, research, and health policy. This article examines the career trajectory of a nurse bioethicist and the clinical, educational, and research experiences that shaped her career goals. It also addresses the uniqueness of nursing and the ethical challenges that nurse’s encounter in their day-today interactions with diverse patient populations and calls for distinct conceptual and empirical bioethics inquiry. Training the next generation of nurse bioethicists requires a dialogue with nursing and bioethics scholars on the academic and philosophical skill set and mentorship requirements that will advance and contribute to the broader public good.