Rhetorical Analysis Of Nursing Ethics

Rhetorical Analysis on an Exposia of Nursing Ethics

In the essay “ Nursing’s Code of Ethics, Social Ethics, and Social Policy,” Marsha D. Fowler explains the history of Nursing ethics and what should be utilized in today’s society. Fowler explains to her readers what nurses should promote within the healthcare field. The purpose of her essay is to persuade her audience, whom are Nurses or someone who has background knowledge, into taking action. In order to explain the importance of ethics, Fowler uses two primary arguments emphasising, nurses need to have a stronger voice in policy making and they need to follow the code of ethics which was set for them. Fowler (2016) concludes in her article by encouraging nurses to take action and

One mistake can be caught on camera by those who are distrustful of nurses. Overall, Fowler article was extremely unsuccessful at pusadering her audience to take action and become a part of policy making in healthcare because of her structural errors and usage of irrelevant sources in a failed attempt to build credibility with her audience. Fowler’s structural weaknesses in her organization and thesis statement was not persuasive, thus leaving her readers confused. Fowler first begins her article with background information about her topic, stating the history of Nursing. She outlines extensive details about the founding of the code of ethics for three paragraphs, which was not necessary for her argument. In her attention getter Fowler(2016) opens her article with she stated “ Modern American nursing arose during the Civil War” (p. S9) did not support the topic (Fowler, 2016, p.S9). Fowler structures her essay to begin with a history lesson, she leaves her audience, who most likely already have background knowledge of the history of nursing, bored and uninterested in her article and as a result of Fowler’s irrelevant synopsis of the history of nursing, she did not

Throughout Fowler’s (2016) essay, she mentions an “educational model in the 1870’s” called Nightingale which she attempted to make it seem important and relevant to her argument (p. S9). However, it was 2016 and even though past ethic codes are historically important, they are outdated and not always useful when attempting to enact change now. Furthermore, Fowler mainly cites evidence from over 50 years ago, therefore, is not credible. For instance, she states there is “abundant” evidence for her topic but supports her claim with “ the 1916 Bureau of Registration of Nurse” (Fowler, 2016, p. S9). It is obvious to the reader that Fowler is attempting to build credibility utilizing outdated information. This lends the reader to believe there is a lack of current evidence to support Fowler’s claims, therefore, she loses credibility she might have had (Fowler, 2016, p. S9). Furthermore, when Fowler (2016) utilizes evidence such as “the 1926 “suggested code” it leaves her readers confused as to how Fowler has any relevance (p.S9). None of her readers can view her as credible because she never cites any of the current ethics policy. The lack of up to date information ultimately is a detriment to Fowler’s article, thus leaving her audience