Nursing Ethics: Feminist Perspectives

by Helen Kohlen (Editor), Joan McCarthy (Editor)

Overview

The aim of this book is to show how feminist perspectives can extend and advance the field of nursing ethics. It engages in the broader nursing ethics project of critiquing existing ethical frameworks as well as constructing and developing alternative understandings, concepts, and methodologies. All of the contributors draw attention to the operations of power inherent in moral relationships at individual, institutional, cultural, and socio-political levels. The early essays chart the development of feminist perspectives in the field of nursing ethics from the late 19th century to the present day and consider the impact of gender roles and gendered understandings on the moral lives of nurses, patients and families. They also consider the transformative potential of feminist perspectives to widen the scope of nursing and midwifery practices to include the social, economic, cultural and political dimensions of moral decision-making in health care settings.  The second half of thebook draws on feminist insights to critically discuss the role of nurses and midwives in leadership, healthcare organisations, and research as well as the provision of particular forms of care e.g. care in the home and abortion care. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030491048
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	11/09/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	412 KB

About the Author

Helen Kohlen is Professor of Care Policy and Ethics at the Philosophical-Theological University of Vallendar, Germany and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta, Canada. She is the author of Conflicts of Care: Hospital Ethics Committees in the USA and Germany and co-editor of Moral Boundaries Redrawn: The Significance of Joan Tronto’s Argument for Political Theory, Professional Ethics, and Care as Practice (with Gert Olthuis, and Jorma Heier).
Joan McCarthy is a Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Ethics in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork, Ireland, and a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, UK. She is the co-author of Nursing Ethics: Irish Cases and Concerns (with Dolores Dooley) and End-of-Life Care: Ethics and Law (with Mary Donnelly, Dolores Dooley, Louise Campbell, and David Smith).

Table of Contents

Foreword.- Introduction.- I. Nursing Ethics and feminist theoretical challenges.- Chapter 1. The influence of the social location of nurses-as-women on the early development of nursing ethics.- Chapter 2. An evolution of feminist thought in nursing ethics.- Chapter 3. Piecing together a puzzle: Feminist materialist philosophy and nursing ethics.- Chapter 4. Bearing witness and testimony in nursing: An ethical-political practice.- Chapter 5. Intercultural perspectives.- Interlude: Joan Tronto on care ethics and nursing ethics: an interview.- II. Nursing ethics in organisation, clinical practice, and research through a feminist lens.- Chapter 6. Organisation ethics, relational leadership and nursing.- Chapter 7. Hospital Ethics Committees and the dismissal of nursing ethical concerns: A feminist perspective.- Chapter 8. Feminist reflections on home, digital health technologies and ethics.- Chapter 9. Conscience, conscientious objection and commitment: midwives, nurses and abortion care.- Chapter 10. Feminist ethics in nursing research.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Martha Scheckel, PhD, RN (The Catholic University of America)
Description: This book encompasses myriad perspectives on feminist ethics in nursing and health care. Its plurality of perspectives is the unique structural element, all of which are organized in concise segments within each section of the book.
Purpose: This book offers readers paradigms through which to critique and think differently about taken-for-granted concepts and milieus in the discipline of nursing such as morality, bearing witness, nursing leadership, and technology. The authors achieve these objectives, contributing unique and contemporary applications of feminist perspectives for nurses. The book is critically needed to assure nurses can see their way out of dominant paradigms and the status quo toward creating improved nursing care.
Audience: While the authors do not explicitly state the audience, the dense and theoretical content lends itself to graduate students studying nursing or related disciplines. Given this audience, the book meets the needs of the audience, requiring careful reading and deep thinking to grasp the content. There is a range of authors with various backgrounds whose study of feminist theory is apparent in the scholarly endeavors in which they have or are undertaking.
Features: The best aspects of the book are the depth and breadth of topics. The authors ensured canvasing the landscape of nursing and health care in relation to application of feminist perspectives of nursing ethics. While the writing is dense and complex, the authors support their positions with appropriate literature, arguing with clarity to motivate readers to want to access references to learn more about a topic. The authors also provoke thinking in a compelling way that can spur action about addressing recalcitrant issues in nursing practice. The thick theoretical descriptions may be difficult for readers. The use of tables and photos could facilitate reading. The authors should consider a section about nursing education in future editions.
Assessment: As compared to other books related to nursing ethics and feminist perspectives, this book offers a range of topics for readers to grasp diverse applications. The broader applications are important in promoting nurses' abilities to bring feminist perspectives about nursing ethics to bear in many different and important nursing and healthcare contexts.

Doody's Review Service

All ten book chapters are written by experienced researchers and lecturers in the field of medical, healthcare and/or feminist ethics, philosophy, care policy and/or law, nursing, etc. … Nursing Ethics: Feminist Perspectives is a much welcomed book and should be read by students, academics, professionals, and the broader public to gain a holistic view and deeper understanding of nursing and all its ethical dimensions.” (Tijs Vandemeulebroucke, Ethik in der Medizin, Vol. 33, 2021)

From the Publisher