2021 Volume 25 Issue 1 Pages 216-224
The purpose of this study is to clarify the difficulty that the assistant head nurses of a university hospital feel in maintaining ethical behavior. That purpose is to consider the education/support system to improve ethical behavior as well. The subjects were fifty assistant head nurses belonging to University A Hospital. The content of the survey is a free statement asking clinical experience, educational experience of nursing ethics, and specific cases and one's behavior in line with the framework of J. Rest's ethical behavior's four elements [(1) moral sensitivity, (2) moral reasoning, (3) commitment, and (4) implementation]. In the analysis, we use descriptive statistics for option items. We further conducted a content analysis by extracting the context that expresses difficulty in a free statement. As a result of a free statement's content analysis, we extracted eight categories indicating difficulty. Those categories are (a) unable to protect the patient's dignity, (b) insufficient informed consent, (c) support for decision-making of patients who cannot make self-determination, (d) communication with doctors, (e) difference in medical value, (f) deficiency of opportunities to learn ethics, (g) no confidence in the leadership position, and (h) placement of nurses leading to lack of care.
For the assistant head nurses to have ethical behavior, it is necessary not only to have knowledge in the form of educational support but also to strengthen their ability to clarify ethical issues and verbalize them to convey them to others. Furthermore, it is required to have practical support from an administrator and a specialist.
