Ethics for Nursing and Healthcare Practice

If you don’t know why nurses need to understand ethics – read the newspapers; if you want nurses to understand ethics – give them this book.  This is well written with very practical examples with which nurses and nursing students can identify.

Kath Melia has captured the complex relationship between ethics, sociology and law in this book. She does not simplify the issues, yet this text, with its lively case illustrations, is totally relevant to everyday clinical practice.

'Melia tackles this most important topic in a fluent and immensely readable way.  This book should be essential reading for any nursing professional facing the complexities of contemporary practice.'

Kath Melia, an experienced and knowledgeable writer on health care ethics, has once again produced a very useful text for both students and registered nurses and health care practitioners in all disciplines. The emphasis on a case based, “reality” approach makes the theory-practice link explicit, a vital skill when writing about the complexities of ethics theory.

This very readable book is an excellent resource for all healthcare practitioners.
In the introduction chapters, it clearly outlines the concept of ethics, but places that concept at the heart of healthcare outlining why ethical debates are important when faced with the dilemma of deciding on the correct course of action in challenging situations.
The latter chapters explore many topics that can be perceived as difficult topics for nurses, for example, euthanasia, assisted dying and organ donation. These topics are treated objectively and would be valuable for all practitioners to read.