The Good Samaritan Nurse in a Secular Age

Nurse-patient advocacy requires respect and support from the profession as an inevitable right of all those, whether Christian or not, who are committed to ethical patient care. Our aggressively secular age can often pose a risk to patient advocacy and true care. Experience of such a culture can make or break the vocation of nurses who need support to promote and maintain the important role of patient advocate. A long-held interest in nursing ethics, holistic patient care and patient advocacy has been developed over years in nursing, together with an interest in medical anthropology and medicolegal issues. A nursing career, covering elderly care, oncology, palliative care, and nurse education, all experienced in both NHS and private healthcare settings, developed an interest in nurse-patient advocacy. Research undertaken during MSc studies, investigated this important role.