Nurses’ professional values: Influences of experience and ethics education

Abstract

Aims and objectives To measure the professional values of registered nurses and determine whether these values are significantly related to postlicensure ethics education and years of experience. Background Nursing guilds in many countries reference the American Nurses Association's code of ethics to define expected professional nursing values. Strong professional values contribute to high‐quality patient care and are influenced by complex practice environments. Design Causal‐comparative design. Methods A convenience sample of actively licensed registered nurses in Washington State, United States of America, participated in an electronically administered survey (N = 2,439). Analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and correlation. Reporting utilised the STROBE checklist. Results Results suggested values of highest and lowest importance to nurses. Scores varied significantly based on years of nursing experience; a higher score indicated stronger orientation toward professional nursing values. Nurses with experience of 10 years or more had the highest scores. There was a modest, positive relationship between professional values and amount of time spent in postlicensure ethics education. Conclusions Professional values of Washington State nurses are similar to other nurses in national and global workforces. Results suggest key areas of strength in nurses’ professional values and areas needing additional focus and support. Professional values are highest among nurses with longer practice experience and among nurses who have had increased ethics education. Relevance to clinical practice Knowledge of nurses’ priority values can assist leaders and educators to identify areas of needed support among nursing staff members. Organisational commitment to support of nurses’ professional values through investment in ethics education may produce positive enduring consequences, such as workplace retention and high‐quality patient care. Healthcare leaders and clinical educators who promote ethics education may help to mitigate negative effects of morally challenging situations, such as moral distress and work leaving.

Differences in professional values between nurses and nursing students: a gender perspective

“…As in other research (Clark ), the students granted more importance to the professional values compared to the nurses. These findings of decreasing professional values do not coincide with other studies (Bijani et al ; Gallegos & Sortedahl ; Monroe, ; Poorchangizi et al ) where the opposite effect was observed. However, our findings about the different appraisal of professional values among students and nurses were recently confirmed in a similar study conducted in Iran, which included the vision of instructor nurses, finding significant differences among the three groups in all the domains analysed.…”

“…It is especially important to review the commitment of these expert professionals towards their ethical values. As demonstrated elsewhere, if these nurses incorporate these values in their care, they may become role models in the workplace for nurses in training or with less experience (Monroe, ).…”

Ethical challenges of novice nurses in clinical practice: Iranian perspective

“…Nursing, as a profession, is beyond a set of skills and techniques; it should be noted that comprehensive care not only covers physical needs but also addresses the values and beliefs of the patients (Berman et al, ). Although there are nurses who are still far from the ethical reality of their job (Campana & Hammoud, ; Monroe, ; Unruh et al, ), some nursing researchers view the performance of this profession based on ethics and believe that nursing professional performance is so mixed with ethics that nursing can be considered as a moral philosophy (Harrison et al, ). Nurses face different ethical issues during their daily clinical activities for different reasons (Zahedi et al, ), such as nursing shortage, emergence of new diseases and use of modern technologies in the hospitals, and complex issues such as declaration of brain death, transplantation, genetic manipulations and artificial insemination.…”

Expressões da ética e do di stresse moral na prática do enfermeiro intensivista

“…(20,21) O exercício da advocacia do paciente expressa a ética neste cenário, e se configura como um objetivo do trabalho do enfermeiro frente ao cuidado. (22) A advocacia se constitui por um conjunto de práticas que envolvem esforços do profissional para garantir os interesses dos pacientes, no âmbito dos seus direitos, no acesso à informação para tomada de decisões sobre sua saúde, no alcance de bens e serviços necessários ao seu cuidado. (15,21,23) A defesa do paciente com dor, ou em cuidados paliativos, como apontado nos resultados deste estudo, foi relacionada como campo de práticas de advocacia pelo enfermeiro também em outro estudo.…”