Educating for ethical leadership

doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2009.11.003

Nurse Education Today

Volume 30, Issue 3, April 2010, Pages 224-227

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2009.11.003 Get rights and content

Abstract

In this article we consider the nature of ethical leadership in nursing. An appreciation of the basis of such leadership requires an understanding of responsibility and of key intellectual and ethical qualities or virtues. We examine some of the educational and practice strategies to promote ethical leadership. We argue that there are different levels of ethical leadership. All members of the nursing workforce are ethical leaders in so far as they demonstrate a commitment to ethical practice in their everyday work and act as ethical role models for others. Nurse managers are responsible for influencing their team and for acting as arbiters between organisational and professional values. Nurse educators are role models and ethical leaders as they ensure that the explicit and hidden curriculum demonstrate a commitment to professional values. Nurses who assume political roles have an obligation to lead on ethical agenda compatible with the values of nursing.

Introduction

Nurses and other health professionals work in constantly changing practice, policy and political contexts as they engage in one-to-one relationships with patients, relatives, other professionals and students. They negotiate the complexities of participation in multi-professional teams and organisations and in their work respond to government initiatives and targets. In all these relationships and activities an understanding of ethics is essential and there is potential for conflicts of ethical values. Patients, relatives and professionals may, for example, have quite different views on what is in patients’ best interests. Different members of multi-professional teams may value different outcomes and healthcare organisations may appear to value financial targets over quality of care. Professional values may, therefore, conflict with organisational or managerial values. Ethical leadership is necessary to ensure that the values of individuals, teams and organisations are understood, deliberated and considered in relation to professional values that support the dignity and flourishing of individuals, organisations and societies.

In this article we discuss the nature of ethical leadership in nursing. We distinguish this from unethical and non-ethical leadership. We argue that nurses and other professionals should become involved in different levels of ethical leadership, that is, in their relationships with individuals, with organisations and at a political level. Finally, we discuss a range of educational and practice strategies that have the potential to promote ethical leadership in nursing.

Section snippets

Leaders, followers and ethics in nursing

Leadership is primarily concerned with goal determination and achievement (Leibold Sieleff, 2004) and with bringing about change. Leadership in nursing can be said to span four quadrants: clinical, academic, executive and political (Antrobus and Kitson, 1999). There is, therefore, the potential for nurses to be leaders at the bedside, in universities, in the boardroom and in the political sphere. Jooste (2004, p. 217) writes that leadership is about:

enabling ordinary people to produce

The meaning and potential impact of ethical leadership

Responsibility is an important element in ethics. For leaders, it is therefore necessary to understand and know the difference between responsibility to and responsibility for. Parents have responsibility for their children and various people are responsible for adults who are unable to speak for themselves for clearly defined reasons, such as unconsciousness or some forms of mental distress. These are limited situations. In every other instance, health care professionals (HCPs) are responsible

Moral virtues for ethical leadership

The preceding discussion has suggested that ethical leadership is not only characterised by what leaders do, by their conduct, but also by the character or qualities of the leader. Nurse leaders require the intellectual virtue or quality of professional wisdom to be able to perceive the salient features of situations and to respond appropriately. They also require a range of moral virtues, for example, courage, trustworthiness, respectfulness, justice and integrity (Banks and Gallagher, 2009).

Ethical leadership as every nurse’s business

In the spirit of Austin’s (2008) argument, it is possible to say that from learning about ‘etiquette’ some decades ago, nurses progressed to learning about ethics, then bioethics, international bioethics, until now it is global health ethics. In a globalised world, health care and ethics are global issues. It is therefore imperative to understand the global impact of one’s own work, way of being and caring. The specific issue of nurse migration alone gives a global perspective. The need to

Educational and practice strategies to promote ethical leadership

The process of becoming an ethical leader in nursing is a complex and multi-faceted endeavour. Ethical leaders require particular knowledge, skills and virtues: knowledge to underpin professional and ethical competence; skills to inspire, to challenge and to bring about change; and intellectual and moral virtues to perceive, deliberate and act ethically. The development of such knowledge, skills and virtues requires a commitment from individual nurses, other practitioners, nurse leaders, and

Conclusion

Contemporary nursing is challenging and conflicts of values are common. Nurses need to anticipate when ethical challenges may arise, for example, when organisational values may conflict with professional values. Ethical leadership requires an understanding of the purpose and aspiration of the profession, opportunities to anticipate threats to ethical practice and the skills and virtues to respond appropriately.

Nurses are both ethical leaders and followers. All nurses are responsible for

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Educating for ethical leadership

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Leaders, followers and ethics in nursing

The meaning and potential impact of ethical leadership

Moral virtues for ethical leadership

Ethical leadership as every nurse’s business

Educational and practice strategies to promote ethical leadership

Conclusion

Nursing leadership: influencing and shaping health policy and nursing practice

Journal of Advanced Nursing

Interactional justice in student-staff nurse encounters

Nursing Ethics

On being ethical in a global community: what is a nurse to do?

Ethics in Professional Life: Virtues for Health and Social Care Palgrave

Courage: Eight Portraits

Nurse moral distress: a proposed theory and research agenda

Nursing Ethics

Man’s Search for Meaning

The Remains of the Day

Leadership: a new perspective

Journal of Nursing Management

Leadership behaviours that foster group power

Journal of Nursing Management