What does Nursing want from virtues?

All that is written on the need for virtues in nursing has been written before in moral philosophy without the mention of nursing. So what exactly does nursing want from virtues? The common claim for the use of virtues in nursing is the importance or distinctiveness of their ‘internal aspects’ as good character traits for nursing practice. The internal aspects are able to provide a ‘more person centred’ practical ethics which is important for healthcare and especially nursing. Good character traits are important for morality and nursing practice as they influence perception, feelings, cognition and behaviour. This however still requires at least a unitary comprehensive moral theory and a comprehensive unitary account of nursing, often the two are conflated, which is lacking in all accounts of what nursing wants from virtues. Unfortunately the result is frequently superficial and frustrating discussions of action guidance and action appraisal of nurses. Superficial because these discussions and more have been carried out extensively in moral philosophy and also in psychology. Frustrating because the nursing ethics literature seems to promise to show how a focus on the internal aspects as character traits can clearly relate to nurses work and lives when in fact it doesn’t. It neglects the importance of external aspects and leaves nurses with the somewhat unrealistic ideal that the virtuous nurse will act appropriately in all situations. One positive suggestion following John Doris is that instead of a strong focus on our characters nursing ought to focus on attending to the environment that affects our behaviour. Though Doris may be mistaken about the robustness of character traits a change of focus to the external environment of nursing practice may really help the practice of nursing, however it is defined, and its use of virtues by attending to a realist moral psychology and the difficulties of acting well in practice.