This new edition of a highly regarded standard text continues to focus on an ethic of care, while significantly enhancing and strengthening its theoretical basis. Extensively revised and updated in both content and approach, the third edition: addresses many of the current pressing issues in nursing; emphasises the importance of relationships in health care; examines the process of decision making; uses a four-questions model for ethical decision making; offers material to stimulate discussion; considers the international dimensions of nursing ethics; includes the newly published NMC Code of Professional Conduct 2002. For nurses who practise primary nursing and who are therefore in a special relationship with their patients, this book is particularly appropriate. However, any nurse, whether qualified or in training, will find it easy to read, constructive and thought-provoking.