The Evolution of Nursing's Code of Ethics

Whatever the version of the Code, it has always been fundamentally concerned with the principles of doing no harm, of benefiting others, of loyalty, and of truthfulness. The Code has been focused on social justice and, in later versions, with the changing context of health care as well as with the autonomy of the patient and the nurse.

1893	The "Nightingale Pledge," patterned after medicine's Hippocratic Oath, is understood as the first nursing code of ethics.
1896	The Nurses' Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada (later to become the American Nurses Association), whose first purpose was to establish and maintain a code of ethics.
1926	"A Suggested Code" is provisionally adopted and published in the American Journal of Nursing (AJN), but is never formally adopted.
1940	"A Tentative Code" is published in AJN, but also is never formally adopted.
1950	The Code for professional Nurses, in the form of 17 provisions that are a substantive revision of the "Tentative Code" of 1940, is unanimously accepted by the ANA House of Delegates.
1956	The Code for Professional Nurses is amended.
1960	The Code for Professional Nurses is revised.
1968	The Code for professional Nurses is substantively revised, condensing the 17 provisions of the 1960 Code into 10 provisions.
1976	The Code for Nurses with interpretive Statements, a modification of the provisions and interpretive statements is published as 11 provisions.
1985	The Code for Nurses with Interpretive Statements retains the provisions of the 1976 version and includes revised interpretive statements.
2001	The Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements, as completely revised, is accepted by the ANA House of Delegates.