The Good Samaritan Nurse in a Secular Age

Christian and other nurses in the hostile modern and increasingly secular age may feel helpless in an environment that created the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) and continues to foster end of life 'care' through sedation and dehydration. The book aims to enlighten both health professionals and the public alike to their rights of conscience and knowledge of the needs of vulnerable patients whether related to ethical care or guidance and the law which can affect them. Indifference to patients' needs and suffering may be injurious to nurses' health all of whom have a conscience. This must be respected, protected and used as a guide to truly care for the patient's benefit, regardless of laws and professional pathways which may prove harmful to many vulnerable patients. The questioning nurse on ethical issues and dilemmas needs consideration, respect and support when attempting to act as the patient advocate. Managers at all levels need to be aware of the concerns of front line nurses and to be mindful that recruitment and retention are both equally important factors for the quality of patient care and nurse morale and work satisfaction. The NHS was a wonderful creation which is only as good as its staff at all levels. Its managers and government ministers must remember that the more authority invested in them, the more the accountability and transparency expected by both health professionals, their patients and the public.

Nurse-patient advocacy requires respect and support from the profession as an inevitable right of all those, whether Christian or not, who are committed to ethical patient care. Our aggressively secular age can often pose a risk to patient advocacy and true care. Experience of such a culture can make or break the vocation of nurses who need support to promote and maintain the important role of patient advocate. A long-held interest in nursing ethics, holistic patient care and patient advocacy has been developed over years in nursing, together with an interest in medical anthropology and medicolegal issues. A nursing career, covering elderly care, oncology, palliative care, and nurse education, all experienced in both NHS and private healthcare settings, developed an interest in nurse-patient advocacy. Research undertaken during MSc studies, investigated this important role.