Nursing ethics are the values and principles governing nursing practice, conduct, and relationships between the nurse and patient, patient’s family, other healthcare professionals, and the public. Regardless of practice setting or specialty, nurses face ethical challenges every day in areas such as patient rights, autonomy, informed consent, advanced care planning, end-of-life decision making, and confidentiality to name a few. Ethics guide how we should treat one another, how we should act, what we should do, and why. The American Nurses Association established the Code of Ethics for Nurses in 1950 to support the ethical obligation of nursing. Having a firm understanding of the most updated standards can help nurses make decisions regarding patient care, leading to optimal patient outcomes.

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