Integrity
✅ Integrity means consistently acting according to ethical and professional standards, even when no one is observing.
✅ Nurses demonstrate integrity by being truthful, maintaining confidentiality, documenting accurately, and accepting responsibility for their actions.
✅ Integrity supports trust between nurses, clients, families, and healthcare professionals.
✅ A nurse with integrity does not falsify information or conceal errors and instead follows professional standards of accountability.
✅ Integrity is therefore a fundamental professional nursing value.
Altruism
✅ Altruism refers to concern for the welfare and well-being of others.
✅ Nurses demonstrate altruism by advocating for clients, protecting vulnerable individuals, and placing appropriate client needs above personal convenience.
✅ This value supports compassionate, respectful, and service-oriented nursing practice.
✅ Altruism does not mean ignoring professional boundaries but rather acting to promote the client's best interests.
✅ Altruism is therefore recognized as an important professional nursing value.
Autonomy
✅ Autonomy reflects respect for a person's right to make informed decisions about their own healthcare.
✅ Nurses promote autonomy by providing accurate information, respecting treatment refusals, and supporting informed consent.
✅ The nurse should avoid coercing clients or making healthcare decisions solely on the client's behalf when the client has decision-making capacity.
✅ Respect for autonomy protects the client's self-determination, dignity, and control over personal healthcare choices.
✅ Autonomy is therefore an important professional value guiding nursing practice.
Social Justice
✅ Social justice involves promoting fairness and equitable access to healthcare resources and opportunities.
✅ Nurses demonstrate social justice by advocating for clients who experience poverty, discrimination, disability, or limited access to healthcare.
✅ The value encourages nurses to recognize and address health disparities and unequal treatment.
✅ Social justice also supports fair allocation of resources and respect for the rights of all individuals and populations.
✅ It is therefore a core professional nursing value.