Western Journal of Nursing Research, 1991, 13(4), 514-521

Ethical Issues in Nursing

In the present day nursing literature, the major topic of discussion is Ethical Issues in Nursing. Such trend of discussion shows greater common concern about ethics in industry, business and government. The current literature reflects about the higher number of ethical issues faced by the nurses. There are few nursing studies, which have tried to find out the ethical issues that come across during nursing practice or their feelings about them. The main focus of the survey conducted by Davis (1981), centered on the perception of nurses regarding the extent of their understanding on the concept of ethical dilemma and the content of their own dilemma.

Davis also focused at the affiliation between ethical dilemmas and selected demographic variables. Other researches on nursing practice ethical dilemmas has centered on:

Ketefian, 1981a – Relationship between moral reasoning

Katefian, 1881b – Education, critical thinking and moral education

However, no research has tried to examine about the disturbance of the nurses due to ethical issues that are encountered during nursing practice. This study was carried out to offer some preliminary information about the various types of ethical problems reported by the nurses and their level of worry for the same.

Paper

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Ethical Issues in nursing practice:

Comparison and Identifications across clinical specialty:

Jennifer S. Browning

MS, APRN, BC, Medical-Surgical Nursing, Ohio State University Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA

Carol Reinhardt,

BSN, Medical Intensive Care Unit, Ohio State University Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA

Pamela J. Salisbury, RN, PhD, College of Nursing, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

Learning Objective 1:

Recognize ethical issues commonly encountered by the nurses in an acute care setting.

Learning Objective 2:

Ethical Issues differences discussion, encountered by clinical specialty

The main aim of the research was to get into the depth of the following questions:

• What are the ethical issues commonly encountered by the nurses?
• Do these ethical issues vary by clinical specialty (mental health, cardiology, oncology, rehabilitation)?

The study to answer these questions, research was conducted through cross section survey design. To collect the data, The Ethical Issues Scale, which is a tested instrument developed by Fry & Damrosch (1994), was used.

Mode of Survey

The survey was conducted on nurses in academic medical center on large US territory by administering the computer assisted format. Each research questions had descriptive analysis. 627 nurses from six institutions, covering seven major clinical specialties were surveyed and data on them were collected. These seven major institutions, where surveys conducted were:

• General Medical and Surgical Care
• Oncology
• Cardiology
• Critical Care
• Rehabilitation
• Mental Health
• Woman and Infant Health

The preliminary findings showed five issues, which were often encountered during specialty practices had similar commonalities. The most common encountered issues were:

• Issues surrounding patient autonomy
• Protecting patient rights
• Respecting informed consents

Other issues differed as per specialty.

The survey findings recommend that nurses will have to confront and manage considerable number of ethical issues in daily basis. It is also suggested that by understanding these issues, the nurses should be assisted with resources to master the management of such issues. These recommendations are critical for present diverse delivery and complex system.

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