Overview Of The ANA Social Policy Statement

Preface: Awareness of the American Nurses Association Policy Statement

I became very briefly acquainted with the ANA Social Policy Statement during my time studying in nursing school. In my program there was a greater emphasis placed on the ANA Stratigic Plan: Goals and Objectives rather than actively exploring the ANA Social Policy Statement. During the program, discussions of ethics were occasionally included in lectures but not broadly expanded upon. This gave me only a surface level understanding of ethics and how they pertain to nursing. From this week’s reading materail I have been able to expand my knowledge on nursing policy, pertinant nursing associations, and the ethics that guide them.

American Nursing Association 2015 Policy Statement

The Code of Ethics is an evolving document, reflecting the intertwined matrix between changes in the nursing profession and evolution in the social order. The Nursing’s Social Policy Statement (NSPS) is closely tied to the ANA Code of Ethics, and explores the foundational elements behind nursing’s social contract (ANA, 2015). The academic fields of philosophy and government brought about the idea of social concept. Social contract may be written into law and professesional codes of ethics, however the essence of the concept remains unwritten (ANA, 2015). As social concept related to nursing, the NSPS guidelined do not center around the nurse-patient relationship but rather focuses in the broader relationship between nursing and society. Social contract theory is not tangible nor directly applicable to nursing practive but can be appreciated as an abtract concept (ANA, 2015). There have been many critiques of social contract theory, particularly when pertaining to works by modern contract thoerist such as Thomas Hobbs, John Locke, Jean Jaques Rousseau and John Rawls (ANA, 2015). These theories fail to reguard minority groups and disanvataged peoples of society with any recognition and create systems that lead to opression and