Let us be unequivocal about social justice in nursing.

A search for the phrase social justice on the website of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) will produce 406 results, however none of these results refer to the phrase. I did this search to collect information about references in the NMC documents that portrays the organisation's interest and position on social justice issues in nursing. A start with search for references to social justice in the NMC documents is justified by its statutory responsibilities and legal purposes to the public. One way that the NMC demonstrates this responsibility is by setting standards that schools or universities of nursing should adhere to in framing their curriculum. The failure of the NMC to make a clear reference to social justice challenges its stance on promoting public or social responsibilities of nurses. This contrast the significance that has been attached to social justice by other reputable national and international nursing organisations, such as, the Canadian Nurses Association, American Nurses Association and International Council of Nurses. The recognition of social justice as nursing responsibility by these organisations are evident in the forms of explicit references in documents and creation of specific documents on the topic. The failure of the NMC to make specific reference to and adopt definitive pronouncement on social justice contributes to the elusiveness of the topic in nursing scholarship in the United Kingdom.