Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.24141/1/3/1/10
Friendship as a Virtue in the Practice of Nurses in Relation to Aristotle’s Ethics
Marija Brdarević
orcid.org/0000-0002-6808-754X
; University of Applied Health Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia
Zrinka Pranjić Kozlek
orcid.org/0000-0003-2454-0047
; University of Applied Health Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The main characteristic of a sincere and mature friendship is the unity. Even though Aristotle himself said that no one would have chosen a life without friends for a number of reasons, today this statement bears no less significance. In the process of humanizing medicine, strengthening friendship as a virtue with a strong intrusion of technology is a stimulating form of development of one’s own personality. Besides the competences, knowledge and skills of the profession, a nurse assesses the quality of the nursing care process, educates, conducts research and successfully communicates. Success depends not only on the technical progress of the profession but also on the common goal of all health professions - and that is the restoration patient’s health. The scope of activities of all members of the team depends on the exercise of fundamental moral values such as justice, truth, honorableness, wisdom, love, patience, humility, caring, compassion, warmth and friendship. According to Aristotle the phenomena and features of friendship such as benevolence, solidarity, permanence or loyalty, strength and unity want to encourage each person to respect the values of others. The following reflections will display the short life path of Aristotle where he was always considerably driven by the desire for knowledge. The content of his writings gives evidence of the encyclopedic knowledge and great versatility. The central part of the article will present some philosophers who have studied this subject for the purpose of highlighting and making the value of friendship more familiar. The main analysis of human relations has emerged from the book VIII and IX of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. In this paper, it has the task of humanizing nursing. The conclusion should justify the hypothesis: if a person (a nurse) is a true friend and acts in accordance with benevolent love, the intervention of justice is not required.
Keywords
friendship; professional development of nurses; excellence; bioethics and virtue
Hrčak ID:
183321
URI
Publication date:
26.6.2017.
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