2023 Volume 11 Pages 34-44
This study conducted a prospective survey on the ethical behavior of Japanese medical staff to examine the effect of clinical ethical support provided by an ethics consultation team (ECT) on the ethical behavior of medical staff. A questionnaire survey using the Rinriteki Koudou-shakudo Kaiteiban (the Revised Edition of the Nurses’ Ethical Behavior Scale ; EBS-R) was conducted with the medical staff in a Japanese hospital (Hospital A). The questionnaire was answered twice : directly after the ECT had settled in Hospital A (the first term ; FT) and 10 months later (the latter term ; LT). The LT answers were assorted according to having (LTEC＋) or not having (LTEC−) taken advantage of the clinical ethical support by the ECT. The questionnaire results obtained for the FT, LTEC＋, and LTEC− were compared. The number of answers collected was 270 in the FT and 242 in the LT. The LT tended to show a higher total EBS-R score than the FT. The LTEC＋showed statistically higher scores, in total and for “risk avoidance” and “good care”, than the FT, while the LTEC− scores did not differ from the FT. The findings suggest that clinical ethical support by the ECT helps medical staff improve their ethical behavior.
