RESEARCH ARTICLE
Nurse Leaders as Stewards: The Beginning of Change
Norma Sinnott Murphy*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 3
First Page: 39
Last Page: 44
Publisher ID: TONURSJ-3-39
DOI: 10.2174/1874434600903010039
PMID: 19738914
PMCID: PMC2737121
Article History:
Received Date: 4/5/2009Revision Received Date: 9/6/2009
Acceptance Date: 12/6/2009
Electronic publication date: 20/8/2009
Collection year: 2009
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
In understanding fully persons’ moral predicaments, a core component of forming perceptual judgments, nurses may need to shift the epistemology of their practice from instrumental reasoning, or means-ends thinking, integrating a virtue-based practical reasoning. A bearing witness that achieves understanding of clients’ moral qualities is attained through the articulation of nurses’ self-identities within matrices, such as MacIntyre’s theory of virtue ethics and standards and codes of ethics. Moreover, nurse leaders who exercise stewardship could apply the concept of communities of inquiry to structure learning conditions by which nurses may engage in experiential learning. This leadership enhanced by the nurse steward’s phronetic knowledge, or practical wisdom, which guides understanding of how the clockwork of practical reasoning may evolve within such communities, is critical to nurses’ shift in reasoning. Nonetheless, nurse leaders need empirical evidence to comprehend how stewards’ accumulated moral insights may shape their character qualities, hence selection of values upon which to act in facilitating nurses’ self-expression.
