By Katheren Koehn, MA, RN, executive director of the Minnesota Organization of Registered Nurses (MNORN) and a member of AJN‘s editorial board.

In January, the American Nurses Association declared 2015 to be “The Year of Ethics,” to highlight the first revision to the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements since 2001. Last week, in Baltimore, ANA hosted an Ethics Symposium to facilitate a dialogue about just what the Code means to nursing practice.

This was not your typical esoteric ethics conference, with terms like beneficence, nonmaleficence, fidelity, and utilitarianism floating throughout the sessions. At this symposium the Code of Ethics became a unifying “Call to Action” for the profession.

In welcoming comments, Patricia Davidson, dean of Johns Hopkins School of Nurses, spoke of how ethical practice is critical for improving health care, especially with the move to person-centered care. She reminded us of the moral imperative to address entrenched health disparities, including access to care, and urged each of us to summon our own courageous leadership as we advocate for patients and families and question “entrenched beliefs.”

ANA President Pam Cipriano gave an overview of the Code of Ethics for Nurses, which articulates the ethical obligations and duties of every nurse. The Code binds us together, according to President Cipriano, no matter what practice setting we work in, or job title we hold. It is our nonnegotiable ethical […]