Abstract
This study examined ethical problems in pediatric nursing and the nurses' attitudes towards these problems. The methodology was qualitative. Unstructured, tape-recorded interview data were collected from 18 pediatric hospital nurses with more than five years of clinical experiences. The nurses confronted ethical problems on a daily basis and these were categorized into the following topics: 1) life-prolonging treatment, 2) informed consent, 3) child human rights, 4) education of staff nurses, 5) care environment. Although the nurses identified these problems as ethical issues, they took no action because they defined their role as having severe limitations.
Directions for solving these problems emerged from the data: 1) nurses' need to further develop ethical sensitivity, 2) more advanced clinical and academic nurses who can assist nurses to develop greater ethical sensitivity, and 3) nurses' empowerment that can change the health care environment so that the nurse fully takes the patient advocacy role.
