Formation of the Society for Nursing Ethics International (SONEI)
Discussion of the formation of a society for nursing ethics began when the American Academy of Nursing dissolved its expert panels, including the Expert Panel on Bioethics, in late 2025. Thereafter, several former expert panel members began discussion of forming a group that would focus on nursing ethics, would include members beyond the senior scholar’s in ethics who were members of the Academy, and beyond the borders of the US. The group decided to form and name the new organization the Society for Nursing Ethics International. It also decided to have a soft organizational structure, as friends and colleagues, administered by a Steering Committee (SC); without officers, staff, bylaws, or dues; modeled on the structure of the International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE) which is now approximately 45 years old.
The purpose, mission, and vision of SONEI
*Purpose: To integrate nursing ethics throughout nursing
*Mission: To promote ethical practice in healthcare by bringing together all nursing and allied scholars with a shared commitment to nursing ethics
*Vision: To foster a culture, grounded in nursing ethics, that supports nursing excellence in every role and setting
Our focus and hope…
Our focus is on nursing ethics. Nursing ethics is an applied normative professional ethics that arises with the emergence of modern nursing, and grows out of the community and practice of nursing; reflects the moral tradition, values, aims, and the raison d’être of nursing; and is distilled in the Code of Ethics for Nurses. This applied professional ethics of nursing, has been developed for over a century and a half. It is the profession’s native nursing ethics that contains and expresses the moral norms of nursing practice, as promulgated by the nursing community itself. This ethics is enriched by a range of disciplines such as philosophy, bioethics, sociology, political theory, and critical theories.
Our hope is to provide a collegial and collaborative community of scholars and practitioners focused on the professional ethics of nursing. Thus, it is our hope to further and support nursing ethics education in academic and clinical contexts; to advance research in nursing ethics; to explore ways to affect health care and social policy grounded in nursing ethical critique; to advance knowledge of a range of identity-grounded ethics and their importance to nursing and nursing ethics; to develop the philosophical foundation of nursing ethics; to foster the advance of nursing ethics in clinical practice, and more. Ultimately, we seek to address every role and domain of nursing through the lens of nursing ethics.
Membership
We hope that membership in SONEI will be considered by those who are:
*Actively involved in scholarship and professional engagement that informs and advances nursing ethics and its dissemination, consistent with the purposes aims, and vision of SONEI; and
*Committed to ongoing development of knowledge and skill in nursing ethics.
⭐️ *If you are interested in SONEI, head on over to the membership tab to contact us or subscribe in the box on any page. These links will become active after July 1, 2026.
Projected activities:
To achieve SONEI’s ends, our intent is to support one another, nursing ethics education, research, practice, and policy; through the development of shared resources, collaborative projects among members, collaborative publications; networks with allied organizations, and more. Specific activities or projects may be initiated by the Steering Committee (SC), or by individual members, soliciting volunteers for collaboration from within the membership.
