Imagine a nurse caring for a patient taking a medication

· Updated on December 11, 2025

Imagine a nurse caring for a patient taking a medication they do not critically need. At the same time, your spouse is in desperate need of the medication, and you cannot afford it. Would it be morally permissible to take some of the medication for ailing spouse? How can we justify, if at all, such an act? Is there ever a morally acceptable reason for a nurse to take medications, whether for personal use or to help others outside of official protocols?

Drawing on an ethical theory from our course, please explore the moral dimensions of this issue. Consider the ramifications for patients, the healthcare organization for which the nurse works, and the nursing profession's moral integrity.

Respond to one of the following: 


Contrast what a virtue ethicist would say according to its core principles of telos, virtue, eudaimonia, and practical wisdom with what a utilitarian would say using its core principles of welfare, impartiality, sum-ranking, and consequences. Use appropriate textual evidence to back up your claim. Which of the ethical theories you discussed do you believe provides the best account of what the morally correct action to take is and why? (USLOs 11.1, 11.2, 11.3)

Contrast what a virtue ethicist would say according to its core principles of telos, virtue, eudaimonia, and practical wisdom with what a Kantian would say according to its core principles of universalizability, duty, impartiality, and reciprocity. Explain how one of these theories supports your answer. Use appropriate textual evidence to back up your claim. Which of the ethical theories you discussed do you believe provides the best account of what the morally correct action to take is and why? (USLOs 11.1, 11.2, 11.3)

Paper For Above Instructions

Stealing Medicine:Nursing Ethics, Virtue, and Utilitarianism

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Imagine a nurse caring for a patient who is prescribed a medication they do not critically need, while the nurse’s spouse desperately needs the same drug but cannot afford it. Is it ever morally permissible for the nurse to take some of the patient’s medication? In this essay, I will contrast how a virtue ethicist and a utilitarian would approach this dilemma, then argue which framework better guides nursing practice.

Virtue Ethics: Character, Telos, and Practical Wisdom

Virtue ethics focuses on the kind of person we should be, not just on isolated acts. Classical virtue ethics, rooted in Aristotle, centers on telos (the proper end or function), virtue (stable excellences of character), eudaimonia (flourishing), and phronesis or practical wisdom (the ability to choose well in concrete situations).Pressbooks+1

For Aristotle, human flourishing involves living in accordance with rational virtue and fulfilling our function well. A nurse’s telos includes promoting patients’ health, protecting their vulnerability, and upholding the trust society places in the profession. Professional nursing ethics (such as the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics) echoes this: the nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, and nurses must maintain integrity and trustworthiness in all roles.Code of Ethics+1

From a virtue-ethics perspective, secretly taking medication is not just a rule violation; it reveals and shapes character. It involves:

  • Injustice, because it misappropriates resources entrusted to the nurse for the patient’s benefit.

  • Dishonesty, because it requires deception about medication counts and documentation.

  • Lack of fidelity, because it betrays the trust of the patient, employer, and profession.

Even if the spouse benefits, such an action undermines the nurse’s development as a virtuous person and corrodes the moral ecology of the workplace. Practical wisdom would look for ways to help the spouse that preserve integrity, such as advocating for charity care, generic alternatives, social work support, or patient-assistance programs.

Eudaimonia is not merely feeling good; it is living a life of moral excellence over time.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy A nurse who becomes comfortable with “small” acts of diversion risks drifting into larger breaches, harming patients and ultimately losing licensure, employment, and self-respect. Virtue ethics therefore strongly suggests that taking the medication is not morally permissible, even for a compassionate motive.

Utilitarianism: Welfare, Impartiality, and Consequences

Utilitarianism is a family of consequentialist theories that judge actions by their overall impact on well-being. Classical utilitarianism holds four core elements:

  1. Consequentialism – Only consequences matter morally.

  2. Welfarism – The relevant consequences are changes in well-being.

  3. Impartiality – Everyone’s welfare counts equally.

  4. Aggregation (sum-ranking) – The right action maximizes the total balance of benefits over harms.Indira Gandhi National Tribal University+4Utilitarianism.net+4Santa Clara University+4

Applied to this case, the utilitarian asks: Which choice produces the greatest overall welfare for all affected? The nurse’s spouse might gain significantly from access to the medication (relief of suffering, prevention of serious harm). The patient might appear to lose little if the medication is “not critically needed” or if some doses are unused.

However, a thorough utilitarian analysis must consider all consequences:

  • Risk of under-treating the patient if their condition worsens and the medication is then needed.

  • Potential side effects for the spouse without proper prescription and monitoring.

  • Harm to other patients if the theft is discovered and leads to staffing disruptions or reduced trust.

  • Damage to institutional trust, increased costs of auditing and security, and public worry about medication safety.

  • Long-term harm to the nursing profession’s reputation and to patient willingness to seek care.

Healthcare literature on drug diversion emphasizes that such actions violate multiple provisions of the nursing code, jeopardize patient safety, and are treated as serious misconduct by employers and regulators.My American Nurse+2NCBI+2 When these broader consequences are counted, the “net utility” of taking the medication is likely negative.

Still, a strict utilitarian might say that in a highly idealized scenario—for example, where it is certain the medication will never be needed by the patient, the spouse’s life can be saved, no one will be harmed, and the act will never be detected—the action could be justified because it maximizes total welfare. Utilitarianism’s impartiality allows the spouse’s suffering to count just as much as the patient’s.

In practice, though, we rarely have such certainty; and institutional trust and safety are fragile goods. So most real-world utilitarians would probably oppose diversion because the predictable harms to patients, systems, and public trust outweigh the speculative benefit.

Comparing the Two Views

Motivation and character vs. outcome-only focus.
Virtue ethics evaluates not only what happens but who we are becoming. Utilitarianism focuses primarily on outcomes, sometimes allowing morally troubling acts if they produce a good balance of welfare. In nursing, where trust, integrity, and reliability are central professional virtues, character-based evaluation seems particularly important.

Partiality vs. impartiality.
Virtue ethics acknowledges special responsibilities: nurses have a particular duty to this patient under their care. Utilitarian impartiality insists that the spouse’s welfare counts just as much as the patient’s.Utilitarianism.net+2Santa Clara University+2 But nursing ethics and the ANA Code clearly prioritize the patient’s interests when the nurse is acting in a professional role.Code of Ethics+2WisTech Open+2

Role of professional norms.
Virtue ethics can easily incorporate the norms of a profession as part of what it means to fulfill one’s role well. Utilitarianism sometimes struggles with “rule vs. act” tensions: should we follow rules that generally maximize welfare (like “do not divert medications”) or occasionally break them when we think the consequences will be better? In a complex healthcare setting, frequent rule-breaking based on individual judgment is dangerous, especially given biases and limited information.

Is Medication Diversion Ever Morally Acceptable?

Given both frameworks and nursing’s professional standards, the answer is no: it is not morally permissible for a nurse to take medications for personal use or to help others outside official protocols.

The morally appropriate response is not covert diversion but virtuous advocacy: transparently seeking legitimate means to obtain treatment for the spouse—through social services, sliding-scale clinics, generic alternatives, patient-assistance programs, or community resources—while maintaining absolute fidelity to patients and institutional policies.

Which Theory Best Guides Nursing Practice?

While utilitarianism offers a valuable reminder to consider consequences for all affected, I believe virtue ethics provides the best account of the morally correct action here. Nursing is a profession built on trust, integrity, and caring character, not merely on producing good outcomes by any means. A virtue-ethical lens captures the importance of moral character, professional identity, and the long-term flourishing of both patients and practitioners. It firmly rejects medication diversion while still honoring the nurse’s genuine compassion by directing it toward just and honest solutions.

References (APA, 10 sources)

American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. ANA. Code of Ethics+1

Aristotle. (1999). Nicomachean ethics (T. Irwin, Trans., 2nd ed.). Hackett.

Driver, J. (2009). The history of utilitarianism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Hursthouse, R., & Pettigrove, G. (2018). Virtue ethics. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Kranak, J. (2019). Kantian deontology. In S. M. Cahn (Ed.), Introduction to philosophy: Ethics. Rebus Press. Rebus Press+2Open Oklahoma State+2

Mill, J. S. (1863). Utilitarianism. Parker, Son, and Bourn. Indira Gandhi National Tribal University+1

Substance use disorders and drug diversion among nurses: What you need to know. (2023). American Nurse Journal. My American Nurse

Utilitarianism.net. (2021). Elements and types of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism.net

Virtue ethics – Phronesis. (2019). In Open textbook: Phronesis. Pressbooks. Pressbooks

World Health Organization. (2021). Nursing and midwifery: Fact sheet. WHO.

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