The ethical dimension of problems faced in general medicine: relationship with moral sensitivity

Abstract

Objective: to identify the main ethical problems and how these relate to the moral sensitivity of nurses working in a general medicine ward. Method: this qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive study was conducted in a university hospital located in the south of Brazil. A total of 18 nurses working in a general medicine ward were interviewed. A semi-structured interview script was used, and data were analyzed using discursive textual analysis. Results: nurses considered the main ethical problems to include conflicts at the institutional level, situations involving conflicts with patients and/or family members, and conflicts within the staff. The perception of nurses and how they deal with these problems relate to moral sensitivity. Two categories emerged: experiencing ethical problems, and relationship with moral sensitivity. Conclusion: because of the multidimensional nature of moral sensitivity, it trains and enables nurses to recognize and deal with ethical problems faced in clinical practice so that nurses become able to make fair and prudent decisions, improving the quality of nursing care.

Changes in Nurses' Ethical Practices in Organ Transplant Nursing Using Action Research

“…Talk about Experiences at the 7 th Session of AR The case discussed was "Cases who choose dialysis treatment again due to decreased functioning of a transplanted kidney". The patient was an adult who underwent organ transplantations twice from living donors and once from a Significance of accepting and facing the goals and ideas of patients (12) Awareness of need for listening to and thinking about the opinions of others (17) Wish to broaden the own ethical response patterns by gaining a broader multifaceted perspective (7) Difficulty in the process of achieving consensus with patients and their families (11) Significance of pausing and communicating the importance of thinking ethically (11) Wish to obtain a perspective and approach to evaluate the own ethics involvement (6) Necessity for self-care abilities of patients and continuous responses to potential problems (9)…”