This short essay contextualises the work of Florence Nightingale in relation to contemporary international nursing ethics. The article provides an overview of her work, drawing on key aspects of her writing. There is a summary of themes emerging from publications in recent issues of the international journal Nursing Ethics. The essay concludes with some speculative discussion regarding Florence Nightingale’s response to some of the recent trends in nursing ethics.

This study aims to revise the nurses’ ethical behavior scale and assess its reliability and validity. After conducting preliminary surveys, we identified 28 question items that added and modified items already present in the existing nurses’ ethical behavior scale. Using these question items, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey involving 2,500 clinical nurses working at 27 centers, randomly selected from across the nation, and finally analyzed 1,295 copies of the questionnaire. The factor analysis extracted 3 of 15 factors as follows: “risk avoidance（5 items）,” “good care（5 items）,” and “fair care（5 items）.” Their Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients were in the order of .78, .75, and .74, respectively, and the overall scale was .84. In addition, a moderately positive correlation was observed between scales that assessed the interfactor correlation and reference-related validity. This study ensures the reliability and validity of the revised version of the nurses’ ethical behavior scale, which could be revised as a roughly standardized scale using the nationwide survey.

This study’s objective was to examine certified nurse specialists’（CNS）narratives that led to development of role development in ethical coordination. An interview survey was conducted with nine CNSs based on the narrative approach. The findings suggested four themes within their narratives: 1）Experience keeping listening to the real voice of others and doing as much as possible. 2）Experience believing in myself and believing in judgment and action of “now and here.” 3）Experience asking themselves about the influence of their existence or sense of values on patients and staff. And 4）Experience seeking to overcome the differences in values that arise between organizations and other professionals. From the results of the structural analysis, the narrative of experiences that gave rise to role development was characterized as follows. 1）Contrary to the CNS’ expectations, turning points can emerge unpredictably. 2）The opportunity for practical knowledge / role development arose from the establishment of relationships built with doctors / other professionals and system creation. 3）CNS described their role in ethical coordination metaphorically and in their own words.

This study aimed to develop a scale assessing pediatric nurses’ ability to achieve practice that advocates for children’s rights and verify its reliability and validity. The draft scales were extracted from previous studies and their items and validity were examined by teachers and nurses engaging in pediatric nursing and education. Thirty one items of the draft scales were prepared. Furthermore, anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey using these items was conducted with 627 pediatric nurses in 30 health care facilities in the Kanto region, including 25 university and 5 pediatric hospitals. The effective recovery rate was 58.2％. Based on item analysis and factor analysis, nineteen items were classified into three factors: “ability to understand and support children and their family,” “ability to adjust medical staff who did not advocate for children’s rights” and “ability to explain to the child and confirming his or her own view.” Cronbach’s α coefficient for the overall reliability was 0.86 and its content validity was presented. However, there are additional challenges to study the items of the scales and criterion-related validity for another enlarged object of survey. It was confirmed that the scales could be practicable by improving accuracy of the scales.

This study aimed to clarify situations in which nursing university students experienced ethical issues during a four-year nursing course, including practice. In addition, it aimed to clarify the students’ response to such ethical problems. We collected data using focus group interviews with 12 students who consented to participate. Results of our analysis revealed the following seven situations in which students experience ethical issues: “physical restraint without prudent assessment,” “Nursing care against the patient’s intention,” “Correspondence of the healthcare worker without respecting the dignity of the patient,” “Unfair behaviors of healthcare professionals,” “Lack of awareness about maintaining confidentiality,” “Implementing unripe measures and care,” and “Prioritizing patients’ feelings.” When dealing with ethical issues, only 10％ of the students were able to progress to a process of viewing the situation objectively and solving the problem by using methods such as consultation with others. Students suggested that, although they can notice ethical problems, their ability to analyze them objectively is inadequate.

The aim of this study was to clarify the experience of practical nursing instructors who attended a psychiatric nursing ethics conference and how it affected their nursing practice and contributions to students’ learning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on five clinical training instructors with psychiatric nursing experience who participated in an ethics conference during psychiatric nursing practical training. As a result of qualitative descriptive analysis, nine categories were generated: “Recognizing the importance of learning ethics before the ethics conference,” “Anxiety about instruction at the ethics conference,” “Understanding students by exploring students’ ethical thinking,” “Remembering their original goals as a nurse by learning from students,” “Disclosure of clinical nurses’ ethical dilemmas,” “Narrative of nursing aimed at students from the bottom-up,” “Support students’ multifaceted thinking,” “Changes in patients with a deepening of the students’ relationship with patients after the ethics conference,” and “Utilization of teachings from the ethics conference in the clinical nursing setting.”

This study aimed to develop a short version of the Japanese Patient Dignity Measurement Scale（J-PDS）that measures the dignity of hospitalized patients and examine its reliability and validity. We conducted a survey using a modified version of the J-PDS, which consisted of 21 item with 5 factors for expectation regarding dignity and 21 items with 3 factors for Satisfaction with dignity. Responses were obtained from 378 hospitalized patients in 20 hospitals across Japan（response rate: 48.0％, valid rate: 100％）. After confirming the consistency between the revised and the original versions, we narrowed down the items while increasing of factor loading with exploratory factor analysis. Based on the results, we obtained a short version consisting of 12 items with 3 factors, for both expectation regarding dignity and satisfaction with dignity. Cronbach’s α coefficients were 0.89 for expectation and 0.90 for satisfaction. Regarding model fitness, the GFIs were somewhat insufficient, being 0.826 and 0.898 respectively. On the other hand, weak but significant correlation was found between Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale and some factors of expectation and satisfaction. We confirmed that the J-PDS short version has some amount of reliability and validity.

Of the three million hepatitis virus（HBV）carriers or more in Japan, some contracted the virus because vaccination needles were not replaced or sterilized when used among several children after World War II. The aim of the present study was to explore how carriers of HBV were informed of their diagnosis, how they felt upon hearing this information, and how this impacted their lives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten carriers of HBV for whom the contamination was known to be through a vaccination needle. Interview transcripts were analyzed inductively. We extracted the following three core categories: “Positive feelings when I was informed” including ｛I could fully understand｝, “Negative feelings when I was informed” including ｛I was overwhelmed to hear this｝ and ｛I could not understand the disease｝, and “Impacts on my life” including ｛I had fewer options in my life｝ and ［I failed to treat with the disease timely］. This study revealed that careful explanation and mental support by medical professionals are important for carriers, because carries might transmit HBV to others, and be cautious about symptoms of hepatitis.