Bioethics for Nurses
A Christian Moral Vision
Author Alisha N. Mack & Charles C. Camosy ISBN 9780802878922 Binding Trade Paper Publisher WM B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Publication Date July 05, 2022 Size 140 x 216 mmRecovering the foundation of faith in a profession enduring the pressures of a rapidly changing health-care system.
If you are one of the millions of Christian nurses or nursing students in the United States, you already know that there is no real way to separate your faith commitments from your professional vocation—nor would you want to. Especially amid the bedlam of the COVID-19 pandemic, faith has given countless nurses the strength to carry on and be there for their patients, one exhausting shift after another.
Bioethics for Nurses, the first book of its kind, is for nurses and nurses in training who still believe in treating the whole person—not just their medical condition. It is for those committed to living out the love of Jesus Christ through the warm, relational care they provide for all hurting and vulnerable people—including those in underserved populations—each of whom has the dignity of a human being made in the image of God. It is also for those who rightly see themselves as crucial members of medical teams alongside doctors (and sometimes without doctors present at all), empowered to exercise professional judgment while protecting their consciences.
With the combined wisdom of Alisha Mack, a professor of nursing with many years of clinical experience, and Charles Camosy, an award-winning bioethicist and theologian, Bioethics for Nurses advances a vision for a holistic Christian notion of health care with practical applications for everyday relevance on the job. Through a series of case studies in the second part of the book, Mack and Camosy explore the ethics of specific situations with far-reaching implications for nurses working in a range of fields. In the last part, the authors reflect on the future of nursing after COVID-19, making this an especially timely book for a pivotal moment in the history of the profession. Now, more than ever before, the wisdom of the ancient tradition of Christianity is needed to speak into the profound contemporary realities we are facing together as a culture.
“Christian bioethics for nurses—what a strange idea! If we know anything about the discipline of bioethics, we know that its development has tended to discard the religious insights that often marked its early years, and we know that most of its central concerns have tended to focus on the work of physicians. This book, rich with case studies, provides something different, needed, and useful. It focuses specifically on the work of nurses, and it attends to ways Christian beliefs might shape their work. We can hope that it will be used in many schools of nursing.”
— Gilbert Meilaender
author of Bioethics: A Primer for Christians
“I was deeply impacted as I read this book. Alisha and Charles confront medicine and bioethics head-on using profound case studies to shed light on how nurses can truly be the hands and feet of Jesus in their daily interactions and decision-making processes. This book is a must-read and will serve as a resource to reignite true nursing passion in the hearts of all Christian nurses.”
— Angelia Mickle
dean of the school of nursing at Cedarville University
“Christianity—rightly understood—has been a tremendous inspiration and guiding star for so many in nursing. Bioethics for Nurses adeptly explains this past en route to laying out a Christian moral vision powerful enough to renew and sustain nursing far into the future.”
— John F. Kilner
author of Dignity and Destiny: Humanity in the Image of God
“Bioethics for Nurses is very well written, and I am left with the thought, where was this book when I was an undergrad? The history of Christianity and how it is intertwined with the nursing profession is well documented and is clearly the underpinning of the book. The case studies and personal anecdotes from frontline nurses add credibility and an opportunity for the reader to relate.”
— Michele Acito
executive vice president and chief nursing officer at Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck, New Jersey
“There are few vocations that imitate more directly the incarnate and transfiguring nature of Jesus Christ’s love for humanity than nursing. And yet, how often does the deep connection—both historically and conceptually—between this most trusted of professions and Christian morality go unremarked upon? Bioethics for Nurses does more to alleviate this egregious silence in its first chapter alone than any other treatment of the topic I am familiar with, all while remaining clear, engaging, and persuasive. As an educator who works for a faith-based health sciences institution, I greatly appreciated this treatment of nursing ethics. It will serve as a beacon of hope for the future of the field and will be useful for any professor or practitioner who is tasked with furthering the healing ministry of Jesus.”
— Bo Bonner
director of the Center for Human Flourishing at Mercy College of Health Sciences
Religion & Liberty
“Bioethics for Nurses introduces future Christian nurses to a beautiful moral vision for their vocation. For non-Christians and secular clinicians, the book is important for understanding a more robust moral vision for healthcare delivery. . . . Deserve[s inclusion in an undergraduate class in Christian ethics.”
Charles C. Camosy, PhD, is associate professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University. His other books include Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine Is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality, and his published articles have appeared, among other places, in the American Journal of Bioethics, the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Health Progress (the official journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States), The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Daily News, and America.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part One: Recovering a Nursing Vision
1. The Christian Origins of Contemporary Nursing
2. The Shifting Role of the Nurse
3. Faith, Science, and Health Care
4. A Christian Vision for Nursing Bioethics
Part Two: Christian Nursing Bioethics in Action
5. Made Equal in the Divine Image
6. From Fertilization to Natural Death
7. Accepting Death, Never Killing
8. Matthew 25 and Human-Created Distinctions
9. The Last Shall Be First
10. Never Not in Relationship
11. With Everything That We Are
Part Three: The Future of a Profession on the Move
12. Protecting Nurse Consciences
13. The Rightful Place of Nurses on Health-Care Teams
14. COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond
Further Reading
Index