If there's one particular thing that stands out in my memory each year after delivering papers on ethics to groups of undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students, it's the rapt attention that they invariably give to a morally focused case study or nursing narrative. When this occurs, it is as if the unfolding events of the study become a temporary reality for them, and they seem to relive each new development in the story with deep interest. Subsequently, whether it's a story from my own past experiences, another nurse's story, or one of their own stories from practice, the effect is always very similar - we seem to experience that sometimes elusive but highly prized 'pedagogical moment' together.2 I have long presumed that this is because most nurses share their stories with each other as a way of personally relating what it means to face a significant ethical dilemma from both a personal and a nursing perspective. In this regard, nurses are only too willing to offer their ethical interpretations of any given issue, as for them at least, realistic ethical narratives are a major pathway towards the development of better practices.
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