What Is Ethics in Care?
Ethics in care refers to the moral principles and values that guide how caregivers (such as nurses, doctors, and other health professionals) should behave and make decisions when providing care to others. It’s about doing what is right, respectful, and compassionate for people with multiple needs. It also emphasises the value of caregiving in healthcare services, compassion, and attentiveness, particularly in roles often associated with nurturing and support, such as healthcare practices, parenting, and community work. These ethical aspects and perspectives emerged in response to perceived limitations of traditional moral theories, which often minimise the significance of care and emotional connections in human life.
In healthcare, the ethics of care emphasises the importance of understanding people as individuals with unique needs, emotions, and circumstances. It encourages healthcare workers to prioritise empathy, compassion, and trust-building in their relationships with the people they serve. The core ethical principles bring value in various healthcare settings because it protects patient care, people’s rights and dignity, guide healthcare workers through moral dilemmas (e.g., end-of-life decisions, respecting the person’s autonomy), build trust between caregivers and patients, and support professional integrity and accountability. Without ethical standards, care could become harmful, unfair, or disrespectful of human worth.
What Are Ethical Principles in Nursing?
At its core, nursing ethics is about balancing the needs of patients, families, and the broader health care system while maintaining a commitment to compassion, fairness, and integrity. Nursing ethical principles are shaped by professional standards set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)and underpinned by widely accepted moral principles that guide safe, respectful and practical care. These principles are not rigid rules but rather a framework that helps nurses weigh the facts and ethical considerations of each unique situation.
Understanding ethics in nursing extends beyond bedside care to include advocacy for social justice, human rights, and healthcare equity. Nurses are often at the forefront of addressing disparities in healthcare access and positive outcomes, striving to ensure that all people receive compassionate, high-quality care and to promote health. The nursing code of ethics sets out professional standards that must be followed to remain registered and practise safely and ethically in the UK. It consolidates ethical principles and nursing values into four key themes:
- Prioritise people
- Use the best medical practices
- Preserve safety
- Promote professionalism and trust
Importance of Ethics in Health and Social Care
People with multiple needs, such as autism, learning disabilities, mental health needs, physical health conditions, communication differences, or social vulnerabilities, often experience complex and interlinked challenges. In these situations, health and social care’s ethical principles are not optional, but essential to ensure care is safe, respectful, person-centred, and rights-based. By adhering to ethical standards, healthcare and social care professionals prioritise individuals’ dignity, rights, and well-being in their actions, fostering trust and accountability within their communities.
One of the key reasons ethics is vital in health and social care is its role in safeguarding the person’s autonomy. Ethics safeguards human dignity, notably where people may have reduced capacity, high dependency, or difficulty expressing their wishes. In the UK, this aligns with the Human Rights Act 1998, which protects the right to dignity, respect, and freedom from degrading treatment. Ethical practice challenges assumptions and avoids institutionalisation, over-control, or restrictive approaches.
People in complex situations may need additional support to express choice, but ethics demands that their voice remains central.
Ethical care means:
- Supporting informed consent in accessible, meaningful ways
- Using alternative communication methods where needed
- Involving families, advocates, and trusted professionals appropriately
- Following the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which prioritises presumption of capacity, best-interest decision-making and least restrictive options.
Ethics ensures that decisions are not made for convenience, but for the person’s well-being and wishes.
The Core Ethical Principles in Care
The core ethical principles in care serve as a moral foundation for guiding healthcare and social care professionals in their decision-making and interactions with patients or clients. These principles – autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice – are essential for ensuring that care is provided with compassion, fairness, and respect for the person’s rights and dignity. They help practitioners navigate complex ethical dilemmas, balancing the need to act in the best interest of those they care for while respecting their personal choices and ensuring equitable treatment. Together, these principles form a framework that promotes trust, accountability, and the delivery of high-quality, ethical care.
Autonomy: Respecting People’s Choices
Autonomy is a fundamental ethical principle in care that emphasises a person’s right to make informed decisions about their own life, care and well-being. It is rooted in self-governance, which respects people’s ability to determine their course of action based on their values, beliefs, and preferences. For example, healthcare professionals must clearly and transparently present treatment plans, allowing people to weigh the risks and benefits before making a choice.
Respecting one person’s autonomy includes providing information in accessible, meaningful formats, supporting people’s different communication styles, allowing people time and space to decide, respecting cultural, personal and emotional values, and listening without judgement or pressure.
People with learning disabilities, autism, mental health needs, or communication differences have historically been denied autonomy. Ethical care actively challenges this by:
- Avoiding assumptions about capacity
- Adopting care rather than limiting choice
- Involving advocates, families, and trusted supporters appropriately
- Ensuring the person’s will and preferences guide planning
Beneficence: Acting in the Person’s Best Interest
Beneficence is a core ethical principle in nursing that highlights the moral obligation to act in people’s best interests, promoting their well-being and ensuring their safety. It is considered one of the foundational principles of nursing care, guiding nurses to provide compassionate, person-centred care thatprioritisess the health and comfort of those they serve. Beneficence requires nurses to take proactive steps to benefit their patients through direct medical interventions, emotional support, or advocating for their needs.
When a person lacks capacity for a specific decision, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides a clear framework for beneficence through best-interest decision-making. This requires professionals to:
- Involve the person as much as possible
- Consider their past and present wishes and feelings
- Take into account people’s beliefs and values
- Consult family members, carers, or advocates
- Avoid making decisions based on convenience or assumptions
- Choose the least restrictive option
Ethical beneficence respects informed choices, even when they involve risk, supports positive risk-taking, uses shared decision-making and avoids over-protective or restrictive care.
Non-Maleficence: Do No Harm
Non-maleficence ensures a safe environment for people who require and receive care and avoids negligence in the delivery of care. In practice, it includes:
- Preventing physical harm through safe practice and risk management
- Avoiding psychological harm, including distress, fear, or trauma
- Protecting dignity and privacy
- Ensuring fair and non-discriminatory treatment
- Preventing harm from neglect, omission, or poor communication
Ultimately, non-maleficence is about prioritising a person’s safety and well-being, ensuring that any interventions or decisions made in nursing practice do not cause unnecessary harm. It is a guiding principle that underscores nurses’ ability and responsibility to act with care, competence, and compassion in all aspects of care for people.
Justice: Fair and Equal Access to Care
Justice is significant and fundamental in nursing because it promotes fairness in allocating resources, prioritisation of care, and advocacy for populations with multiple needs. It refers to the duty to treat people fairly, equitably, and without discrimination, ensuring that everyone has equal access to safe, effective, and person-centred care.
In the UK, justice is embedded in professional codes, such as the NMC Code and Social Work England Professional Standards, and in legislation, including the Equality Act 2010, the Care Act 2014, and the Human Rights Act 1998.
Additionally, justice extends to advocating for equitable healthcare policies and addressing systemic disparities that may prevent certain groups from receiving adequate care. A key aspect of justice in nursing is distributive justice, which focuses on the fair allocation of limited healthcare resources.
Additional Ethical Principles in Care
In addition to the four core ethical principles, a few other essential ethical principles guide care and other medical practices. These principles address specific aspects of person-centred care and the broader ethical challenges faced in healthcare settings.
Fidelity: Building Trust Through Honesty
Fidelity is an ethical principle in health and social care that emphasises faithfulness, trustworthiness, and honesty in professional relationships. It is about keeping promises, being reliable, and maintaining trust between care providers and the people they support. Nurses are expected to act in the best interests of those they care for, even in challenging situations. Fidelity means adhering to ethical standards and professional codes of conduct, ensuring that care practices align with the highest values of the nursing profession.
Veracity: Commitment to Truthfulness
Veracity is an ethical principle that emphasises truthfulness, honesty, and transparency in all professional interactions. In nursing and health care, veracity ensures that patients, families, and colleagues receive accurate and complete information, enabling informed decisions and trustworthy care.
Practising veracity involves:
- Providing honest information about diagnoses, treatment options, and risks.
- Communicating openly about care plans, potential outcomes, and uncertainties.
- Correcting misinformation or misunderstandings promptly.
- Being transparent about service or care limitations.
- Maintaining trust by never misleading or deceiving patients or their families.
Confidentiality: Safeguarding Personal Information
Confidentiality is the ethical obligation to protect a person’s private information. It ensures that personal health information is not disclosed without the person’s consent, except in cases where disclosure is legally required or necessary to prevent harm. This principle builds trust between people requiring care and healthcare providers.
Ethical practice requires:
- Ensuring care decisions prioritise the person’s rights and dignity
- Tailoring communication so they understand how their information is handled
- Involving advocates, families, or legal representatives appropriately
- Protecting sensitive details about behaviours, health conditions, or personal circumstances
Ethical Decision-Making in Practice
Ethical decision-making in nursing involves choosing and acting in accordance with moral and ethical nursing principles, values, and professional standards in the healthcare setting.
Nurses frequently encounter ethical healthcare dilemmas, such as balancing patient autonomy with beneficence, addressing resource allocation, or managing conflicts between personal values and professional responsibilities. A structured approach to moral decision-making helps nurses resolve challenges with integrity and compassion.
Recognising Ethical Dilemmas
An ethical dilemma occurs when a nurse is confronted with a situation with no straightforward “right” or “wrong” answer, and they must weigh competing ethical principles, such as autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. Moral dilemmas are a standard part of the nursing code, arising when nurses face situations where they must choose between conflicting ethical principles, values, or obligations. Recognising these dilemmas is the first step toward addressing them effectively and ensuring ethical, person-centred care.
Nurses may recognise an ethical dilemma when they feel uncertain about the best action or when the situation involves competing priorities, such as balancing limited resources with people’s needs. Failing to recognise ethical dilemmas can lead to unresolved ethical conflicts, resulting in burnout, compromised patient safety, and broken trust between nurses and patients. By identifying these dilemmas early, nurses can take proactive steps to communicate them, seek support, and make decisions that align with ethical principles and professional standards. Some of the strategies to recognise and resolve ethical dilemmas include:
- Ethics Training and Reflection
- Support Systems
- Open Communication
Private and Community Nursing Care with Unique Community Services
How Unique Community Services Applies Ethical Principles in Nurse‑Led Care
At Unique Community Services, we deliver compassionate, high-quality, nurse-led care that prioritises the well-being of people and communities alike. Whether through private care tailored to personal needs or collaborative efforts with various stakeholders, including healthcare providers, community organisations, and families, we are committed to making a meaningful difference in the lives of those we serve.
Our team of skilled and dedicated clinical teams ensures that care is ethical, professional, and inclusive and person-centred.
To ensure everyone in the sector understands both the ethical principles and the legislative frameworks, so that care professionals can deliver safe, respectful, and legally compliant care every day, we have created brief overviews of foundamental legislations. Ensure your practice aligns with these standards, empower yourself, protect those in your care, and make a meaningful difference today.
Contact Unique Community Services today to learn how we can support you or your loved ones with our comprehensive, nurse-led care solutions!
