Best interests: legal and ethical definitions

While nurses may frequently refer to the patient’s ‘best interests’, it is not always clear what this means. The definition of best interests is often complicated by the fact that it can having different meanings depending on whether it is used in a legal or ethical sense (Taylor, 2016).

The Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (2018) Code encourages nurses to ‘act in the best interests of people at all times’. This requires nurses to understand:

This article considers the nature of best interests from a legal and ethical perspective and considers what this means for the decisions nurses make and the ways in which they might act in practise.

Legal best interests

Nurses must consider the legal meaning of best interests above any other considerations, since they may be held liable for