Ethical difficulties in nursing, educational needs and attitudes about using ethics resources

Abstract

Ethical difficulties arise in healthcare practices. However, despite extensive research findings that demonstrate that most nurses are involved in recurrent ethical problems, institutions are not always able to effectively support nursing care professionals. The limited availability of ethics consultation services and traditional nursing training fails to meet the frequent and strong requests by health workers to support their ethical dilemmas. A questionnaire was administered to 374 nurses attending a specialist training and a lifetime learning programme in Italy. The respondents reported a high frequency of ethically sensitive situations, and they described the poor development of ethics support and a scarcity of ethics training programmes. The results suggest the importance of promoting ethics services that include consultation and ethics training. A need for systematic ethics educational activities was identified for improving the capacity of nurses to manage ethical issues in patient care.

Elements and Strategies for Ethical Decision-Making in Nursing

“…20,[22][23] Five studies were performed in the United States, 1,14,[22][23]28 three in the UK, 20,[25][26] two in Australia, 15,19 14 and one only with nurses of primary healthcare. 17 The study participants were supervisors nurses, [1][2]15 nurses, 3,5,9 nurses and students, 15,18 healthcare professionals 17,19 and nursing managers. 27 The majority of the authors (95%) were university professors.…”

“…The current health care environment, with the rapid advances in science and technology, has created numerous ethical problems for the practice of nurses as well as an increase in these problems. [1][2][3] It is essential to develop decisionmaking skills for the excellence of the professional practice and quality of the health services. 4 Ethical problems in health are situations that unsettle and disturb the conscience of the nurses.…”

Ethical Issues Experienced by Hospice and Palliative Nurses

“…1,2,5,[8][9][10][11][12] Leuter and colleagues 11 found that most nurses experienced recurrent ethical problems and did not feel effectively supported by the health care system. These include futile or nonbeneficial care, pain management, patient autonomy (lack of decisional capacity, patient confidentiality or privacy), advance care planning (disregard of patients' wishes), communication difficulties, conflicts between patients/families and health providers, and conflicts between nurses and colleagues.…”

“…Approximately 60% of ethical dilemmas were associated with truth telling. 1,5,9,11,12,16 Futile treatments may lead to increased pain, loss of dignity, and patient's decreased quality of life. Barriers to truth telling included physicians' avoidance of discussing ethical issues, fear of destroying a patient's hope, and patient's lack of decisional capacity.…”

Deliberação ética em saúde: revisão integrativa da literatura

“…The progress of biomedical science and of health practices has lead to increase and emergence of new ethical problems 1,2 . A conflict in the professional practice becomes an ethical problem when it compromises the conduct and reputation of the professional, when it compromises the interests and well being of the user and when the decision to be taken is nos clear, because several elements and interests are involved, being necessary to deliberate in order to reach the most adequate course of action 3 …”