Nursing students’ ethical decision-making: A review of the literature

The development and implications of a case-based computer program to train ethical decision-making

“…To develop a more sophisticated computer program, knowledge of how differently students respond depending on diverse ethical issues or what critical variables affect ethical decision-making will play an essential role. 2,44 Due to this lack of knowledge in ethical decision-making, the interaction between the learner and the program was limited in this study: the responses of the learner were not always anticipated, and thus the program was not able to precisely react depending on the learner's diverse response, though we do expect the critical knowledge gained from this study to be useful in the development of future versions of the program.…”

“…1,2 Nursing ethics education in an undergraduate program is one of the significant contributors to nursing students' and nurses' competence in dealing with ethical issues. [2][3][4][5][6] The educational outcomes of nursing ethics courses are not satisfying to learners. Nursing students and professionals have reported difficulties and insufficient confidence in applying their ethical knowledge when it comes to making ethical decisions in clinical cases.…”

“…As shown in Figure 1 (Step 5) of Case 1 (surrogate decision-making), when a learner decides to persuade a wife who is refusing a Levin tube insertion for her husband with dementia and severe dysphasia, three possible actions are presented: (1) to include her son and daughter-in-law in the decision-making process, (2) to make sure the wife clearly understands her husband's risks of recurring aspiration pneumonia, and (3) to evaluate the wife's burden as a caregiver and find a way to support her. By examining the consequences of their decision, learners are expected to reflect on the quality of their decision and to learn appropriate attitudes and levels of accountability as an RN.…”

Developing And Validating A Tool To Assess Ethical Decision-Making Ability Of Nursing Students, Using Rubrics

“…(Numminen and Leino-Kilpi , 2007;Gastmans, 2002;Goelthal, Gastmans, & Castelé, 2010). Rapid technological advances creating complex care situations in which nurses are expected to autonomously make decisions in delivering good care to patients within the confines of strictly deadlines.…”

“…Therefore nursing students need to be well prepared to be responsible professionals who are able to provide high quality care and capable of making autonomous ethical decision-making. (Numminen and Leino-Kilpi , 2007) There has been a clear consensus by many educators and researchers that ethical decision-making is an essential component in nursing ethics curriculum. The goal of nursing ethics education is to produce a morally accountable practitioner who is skilled in ethical decision-making ( (Numminen and Leino-Kilpe, 2007;Fry, 2008) However, there is paucity of research explicitly concerned with ethical decision making in nursing education.…”