Abstract
Objectives
In recent years, the importance of ethics in the nursing has been increasing, and ethical practices the nursing professionals are being demanded. In global nursing, for instance when Japanese nurses work in a developing country, they face different socioeconomic status and cultures. These characteristics may affect the ethical aspect. However, no literature review of Global Nursing Ethics (GNE) has been conducted until now. The purpose of the integrative literature review is to investigate the literature concerning GNE from the viewpoint of the kind of literature, the countries where the primary authors live, and the major topics related to ethics. We then will generalize on the present condition of GNE.
Methods
Our review was based on the methodology of Cooper's integrative review. We searched the literature of the last ten years using the Pubmed database, CHINAL, and Japana Centra Revuo Medicina. 86 literatures that met our criteria were analyzed.
Results
1. 53 out of the 86 literatures contained “Information”.
2. Regarding where the primary authors live, 42 live in the United States, 11 in the United Kingdom, and seven in Canada.
3. The numbers of major topics reviewed were: 1) nursing ethics between each country, (a) 21 ethical issues related to immigration of nurses, (b) ten related to global nursing cooperation, (c) seven regarding comparison of nursing ethics between countries; 2) nursing ethics on a global scale, (a) 12 related to interpretation and use of global code of ethics for nurses, (b) 11 related to ethical consideration in global nursing research.
Conclusions
1. Most literatures contained “Information”, and this indicates that the knowledge of GNE has been spreading. Although the importance of GNE has been recognized, future research may be required.
2. The top three authors are from English speaking countries indicating that geographical bias exists in the countries that deal with GNE.
3. GNE depends on the context, so, it is necessary to pay attention to where and how they are used.
