{"id":7744,"date":"2025-06-28T21:50:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T21:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T05:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T05:05:07","slug":"legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published as: Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care<\/strong><\/p>\n

Original Article Link: Read Original Article<\/a><\/p>\n

Download PDF: Click Here to Download PDF<\/a><\/p>\n

Abstract<\/h2>\n

Objective: This paper explores the legal and ethical frameworks that inform nursing practice and health care cultures. Using methodologies informed by critical race and feminist jurisprudence (also called \u2018outsider scholarship\u2019), images of nursing and the positive and negative effects of these images and their legal, moral and ethical impact on nursing practice, are explored. This exploration assists in exposing some of the power structures and assumptions which govern contemporary nursing practice and standards of care and which impact on factors such as workforce retention. Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care.
\nSetting: Applies to all settings in which nurses\u2019 practise.
\nSubjects: Nurses, other health care professionals and patients.
\nPrimary argument: Examples from case law are used to illustrate the relationship between image and power and how these affect legal and moral frameworks and the realities of the workplace for nurses. This is done by examining the law, as a form of insider (whereby the world is described in terms of pre\u2011existing power structures) and outsider story\u2011telling (whereby stories are challenged to reflect experiences). Five dominant and recurrent images of nursing emerge from case law analysis. These have implications for: the way in which nurses respond to critical situations which involve the adoption of a moral stance; nurses\u2019 legal and ethical status, and; the environment in which nurses\u2019 practise.
\nConclusion: Each of the images of nurses described in this paper is still present in both recent case law and workplace practice. These images have deleterious effects, most particularly contributing to feelings of powerlessness in the workplace and affecting nurses\u2019 ability to be \u2018heard\u2019 when patient safety is at stake. While some images give the nurse a degree of moral (and clinical) responsibility, there is no promise of power. Both the inability to influence patient care and an unmet need to feel valued and appreciated contribute to nursing workforce attrition. A complex mix of solutions needs to be implemented to achieve improved workplaces, patient outcomes and retention rates. The promotion of a safety and quality agenda; promoting strategies for self care; well developed clinical career paths; implementing clinical supervision, and introducing Magnet organisation reform, are among the important solutions for addressing these issues.<\/p>\n

Authors<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Mary Chiarella<\/li>\n
  • Elizabeth McInnes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Keywords<\/h2>\n

    law, ethics, power, status and image of nursing, retention<\/p>\n

    References<\/h2>\n

    References not available for this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This article was originally published as: Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[1269,179,3705,4431,5090],"class_list":["post-7744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-ethics","tag-law","tag-power","tag-retention","tag-status-and-image-of-nursing","wpcat-124-id"],"yoast_head":"\nLegality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care - IJSSASS Repository<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-\u2011-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care - IJSSASS Repository\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article was originally published as: Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-\u2011-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IJSSASS Repository\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-28T21:50:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-29T05:05:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"195\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771\"},\"headline\":\"Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-28T21:50:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-29T05:05:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/\"},\"wordCount\":440,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"ethics\",\"Law\",\"power\",\"retention\",\"status and image of nursing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/\",\"name\":\"Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care - IJSSASS Repository\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-28T21:50:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-29T05:05:07+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\",\"name\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\",\"description\":\"Open Access Library\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"IJSSASS\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\",\"name\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\",\"alternateName\":\"IJSSASS\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":195,\"caption\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care - IJSSASS Repository","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-\u2011-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care - IJSSASS Repository","og_description":"This article was originally published as: Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of...","og_url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-\u2011-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/","og_site_name":"IJSSASS Repository","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass","article_published_time":"2025-06-28T21:50:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-29T05:05:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":195,"url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771"},"headline":"Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care","datePublished":"2025-06-28T21:50:27+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-29T05:05:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/"},"wordCount":440,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization"},"keywords":["ethics","Law","power","retention","status and image of nursing"],"articleSection":["Articles"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/","name":"Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care - IJSSASS Repository","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-06-28T21:50:27+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-29T05:05:07+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/legality-morality-and-reality-%e2%80%91-the-role-of-the-nurse-in-maintaining-standards-of-care\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Legality, morality and reality \u2011 the role of the nurse in maintaining standards of care"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/","name":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES","description":"Open Access Library","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization"},"alternateName":"IJSSASS","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization","name":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES","alternateName":"IJSSASS","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png","width":300,"height":195,"caption":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal"],"url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7929,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7744\/revisions\/7929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}