A sound understanding of moral and legal obligations is critical to developing responsible nursing practice and building the nurse-patient relationship. Ethics and Law for Australian Nurses provides a practical framework for understanding the ethical and legal dimensions of nursing practice. The fourth edition has been thoroughly revised to include updates to legislation, the NMBA professional standards and case examples. A new chapter on the legal system and a fully revised chapter on duty of care and negligence provide a thorough overview of the law as it applies to nursing practice. The text also includes expanded material on the regulation of nursing practice, advanced care directives, cultural safety, practice in the context of digital environments, person-centred care and assisted dying. Written in an accessible and engaging style, Ethics and Law for Australian Nurses provides a comprehensive guide for nurses training and practising in clinical, research and policy settings.

1. Understanding the human person; 2. The legal system; 3. The nurse-patient relationship and the regulation of nursing practice; 4. Consent; 5. Duty of care and professional negligence; 6. Culturally safe nursing practice; 7. Patient information and confidentiality; 8. 'Trust me, I'm a nurse'; 9. Witnessing and making mistakes; 10. Issues in abortion and euthanasia; 11. Ethics of aged care: autonomy under threat. The nurse as capacity builder.

Kim Atkins is Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tasmania, and a senior manager in the Department of Health in Tasmania. She became a registered nurse in 1985 and specialised in intensive care nursing for over twenty years. She has nursed in hospitals and health care facilities in New South Wales, the Northern Territory and Tasmania. Atkins completed a Ph.D. in philosophy and taught at Macquarie University, Sydney. She went on to teach philosophy and ethics in the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Nursing programmes at the University of Wollongong and the University of Tasmania. She also runs workshops on values in the workplace and on having difficult conversations. Atkins is the author of Narrative Identity and Moral Identity: A Practical Perspective (2008), and co-editor of Practical Identity and Narrative Agency (with Catriona Mackenzie, 2007).