Abstract

Nurses in countries with distinctly different healthcare systems like Germany, Norway, the USA and Canada report similar shortcomings in their work environments and the quality of hospital care. Engagement in caring about care in the hospital arena from an ethical perspective and trying to bring in nurses’ voices in HECs can be seen as a reaction to care deficits and loosening care practices that harm patients. In this chapter, nurses’ ethical problems in hospital care and their participation in HECs are traced over the last 30 years on the basis of studies in nursing ethics. The question is whether caring issues can be brought to a head in HECs and, if so, how?