Provision 6
Nurses, through individual and collective effort, establish, maintain, and improve the ethical environment of the work setting that affects nursing care and the well-being of nurses.
6.1 The Environment and Virtue
Virtues in nursing and caring practices are learned, habituated attributes of moral character developed in the context of nursing practice, education, and identity formation. Virtues predispose persons to behave in ways that meet their moral obligations as understood by the moral community of nursing; these virtues grow with experience as the nurse moves from novice to expert practice. Virtuous nursing expresses core values, including compassion, caring, dignity, integrity, and respect. As a profession that serves the public, there are certain attributes of moral character nurses ought to possess. These include the application of knowledge and skill in pursuit of wisdom, humility, and moral fortitude. Additionally, virtues are necessary for the affirmation and promotion of the values of human dignity, well-being, health, and other ends that nursing seeks.
For virtues to develop and be operative in nurses, nurses have a reasonable expectation that they will be supported by a moral milieu that enables them to flourish. Nurses contribute to the environment to foster virtuous nursing. Such a moral milieu promotes mutual caring, generosity, kindness, veracity, moral equality, and transparency.