title: Explorations of a trust approach for nursing ethics.
abstract: Trust has long been acknowledged as central to nurse-patient relationships. It, however, has not been fully explored normatively. That is, trust must be examined from a perspective that encompasses not only reliability and competence, but also good will within nursing relationships. In this paper, we explore how a trust approach, based on Annette Baier's work on trust in feminist ethics, could help inform future developments in nursing ethics. We discuss the limitations of other approaches such as those based on contracts, paternalism, and care. By drawing out central features of Baier's theory, we demonstrate how it can help overcome the problems of these previous models. In doing so, we emphasise the importance of combining the ethics of care and justice, acknowledging vulnerability and the potential for evil in nursing relationships, and politically situating the ethical concerns of nursing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy and Institute for Women's Studies, and Gender Studies, Joint Center for Bioethics, University of Toronto, Canada. elizabeth.peter@utoronto.ca
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Peter
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Morgan
mesh_terms: D001318:Authoritarianism; D004645:Empathy; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D005260:Female; D019513:Feminism; D005544:Forecasting; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016294:Models, Nursing; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009014:Morals; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D009742:Nursing Theory; D011057:Politics; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012935:Social Justice