American Nurses Association Guide to Nursing's Social Policy Statement: Understanding the Profession from Social Contract to Social Covenant

Nursing is often called a helping profession: Nursing’s Social Policy Statement is about the many ways that nursing helps others. It is about the relationship - the social contract - between the nursing profession and society and their reciprocal expectations. This arrangement authorizes nurses as professionals to meet the needs involved in the care, and health of patients and clients and the health of society. It helps nurses engage in the political and legislative action that supports nursing education, research, and practice to better influence that health and care; and to understand the social ethics and justice that affect global and individual health. But what does that mean now? The new Guide to Nursing’s Social Policy Statement unpacks it for the 21st-century nurse: Social contract in theory and practice. Nursing’s own social contract and its 16 distinct elements. Nursing and the common good and what constitutes the common good today. Citizenship, civic engagement, and civic professionalism of nurses. Professions and what they are, how they can get broken and mended, and nursing as a profession. The interplay of the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements and Nursing’s Social Policy Statement. Nursing’s social covenant (by which nursing goes beyond its social contract). Nursing’s involvement in public and global health. Suitable for courses and professional development activities in nursing curriculum, ethics, leadership, research, and role development, the Guide to Nursing’s Social Policy Statement clarifies foundational concepts of the nursing–society relationship, the breadth of ways in which nurses might exercise their passion for the profession, a vision for nursing’s social evolution, and much more!