THE ROLE OF VIRTUE ETHICS IN PSYCHIATRIC NURSING

The main purpose of this article is to discuss the place of the ethics of virtues and character in nursing and health care in general, and i n psychiatric nursing in particular. To attain this goal, the relation ship between the ethics of duty (i.e. rule based ethics) and the ethic s of virtue and character will be clarified in order to defend our mai n hypothesis that these two types of ethics should complement each oth er, since both are necessary but neither by itself is sufficient for n ursing. This means that any applied ethics, as in nursing, should cons ider the importance of the agent's moral character. To support our arg uments, we shall use cases from the empirical reality of psychiatric a nd mental health care.