The results from our study could be used to raise awareness of the importance of conscience in care.

Every day situations arising in health care contain ethical issues influencing care providers' conscience. How and to what extent conscience is influenced may differ according to how conscience is perceived. This study aimed to explore the relationship between perceptions of conscience and stress of conscience among care providers working in municipal housing for elderly people. A total of 166 care providers were approached, of which 146 (50 registered nurses and 96 nurses' aides/enrolled nurses) completed a questionnaire containing the Perceptions of Conscience Questionnaire and the Stress of Conscience Questionnaire. A multivariate canonical correlation analysis was conducted. The first two functions emerging from the analysis themselves explained a noteworthy amount of the shared variance (25.6% and 17.8%). These two dimensions of the relationship were interpreted either as having to deaden one's conscience relating to external demands in order to be able to collaborate with coworkers, or as having to deaden one's conscience relating to internal demands in order to uphold one's identity as a 'good' health care professional.

Both occupational groups viewed conscience as an asset and not a burden. Registered Nurses seemed to exhibit sensitivity to expectations and demands and nursing assistants used their conscience as a source of guidance in their work. Structured group supervision with personnel from different occupations is needed so that staff can gain better understanding about their own occupational situation as well as the situation of other occupational groups.

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to illuminate the meanings of support as disclosed by mothers of children with congenital heart defects (CHD).Design and MethodNarrative interviews were conducted with 10 mothers of children with CHD. A phenomenological-hermeneutic method was used for interpretation of the transcribed interviews.ResultsThe comprehensive understanding of mothers' lived experiences of support emerged as the experiences of receiving good support, receiving “poor support,” and absence of support.Practice ImplicationsMothers receiving person-centered and family-centered care feel more supported and are more likely to adapt to the stresses of parenting a child with CHD.