Articulating a Policy Resolution for Sexual Diversity Research: Nurses as Moral Agents

Abstract

This case study of community nurses in the Canadian province of Ontario explores the relevance of power relations to nursing ethical inquiry. Public health nurses critically reflected on their role in challenging social inequities as they generated evidence to inform practice. In the process, they developed a policy resolution articulating values and principles for ethical nursing research with diversely situated sexual minorities. The author uses a qualitative case study design and applies a feminist bioethics framework using critical literature to analyze this document and the practice context. The findings suggest that dynamics of power, including gender, influence nurses' ability to advocate for sexual minorities through research, prompting the development of a public statement on knowledge production. There are implications for undertaking nursing ethical inquiries that explore how dominant and counter-discourses and multiple dimensions of power shape nurses' moral agency in challenging the status quo.