Unravelling the dilemmas within everyday nursing practice

Each day, nurse practitioners are faced with clinical situations and dilemm as that have no obvious right answers. This article sets out the process of ethical mapping as a reflective device to enable practitioners to reflect on dilemmas of practice in order to learn through the experience and inform future practice. Ethical mapping is illustrated around a single experience that an intensive care practitioner shared in an ongoing guided reflection relationship. Within this process the practitioner draws on ethical princi ples to inform the particular situation, notably autonomy, doing harm, trut h telling and advocacy. Through reflection, ethical principles are transcen ded and assimilated into knowing in practice, enabling the practitioner to become more ethically sensitive in responding to future situations.