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A Nurse Practitioner (NP) Ethicist is an advanced practice nurse who began as a registered nurse (RN) and completed advanced graduate training to diagnose, treat, prescribe, heal, and promote health as an NP with additional education in healthcare ethics, bioethics, or clinical ethics in an additional graduate program and/or clinical ethics fellowship program. NP Ethicists maintain all the benefits of being nurse ethicists: “a nurse ethicist has the advantage of extensive clinical experience practicing nursing, has expertise in nursing ethics and nursing science, has experience navigating healthcare systems, has experience in building rapid relationships with families and patients, and knows the ethical duties and virtues required of nurses.” In addition to these advantages as a nurse ethicist, NP Ethicists “offer a distinct perspective that blends hands-on patient care with ethical analysis” from the lived experiences and expertise of the NP role.

NP Ethicists practice from the history of nursing ethics which “preserved its central focus of serving patients.” This attention to nursing ethics shows that the fundamentals of nursing ethics are “devotion to the good of patients, loyalty to other health care professionals, and assisting society to improve patient care…[which] is lived out when nurses give back and care for patients without seeking personal gain.” NP Ethicists also have to practice with an honor to the ethics of those who treat, diagnose, prescribe, and promote health which is found in philosophies of medicine. These philosophies assert that clinicians must aim to help, heal, and care for patients. These essentials for the NP Ethicist combine to formulate a philosophy for NP practice that holds NPs accountable to devotion to their patient’s good while aiming to help, heal, and care.

“To put it succinctly, the NP ethicist retains all of the benefits and concerns of a nurse ethicist, while also gaining the unique scientific training, experience, and skills that set NPs apart. The NP ethicist also compassionately relates to NPs who face moral distress and ethical challenges that are specific to the NP profession.”

NP Ethicists are “uniquely positioned to provide ethical recommendations in healthcare settings as ethicists and ethics committee members, distinct from nurse ethicists and non-clinically trained ethicists, due to their unique experience as NPs.” They “bring a unique and needed perspective to clinical ethics, combining the ability to rapidly connect with patients and a commitment to helping and healing relationships through advanced ethical training.”

In the words of the first article ever written on the role of NP Ethicist, “the nurse practitioner ethicist is distinct because he or she practices ethics from the internal morality of advanced nursing practice with additional training and experience in advanced nursing practice and ethics to provide a unique perspective while also being an educator, author, clinical ethics committee member, clinical ethics consultant, and nurse ethicist.”