Nurse educators and professional ethics--ethical principles and their implementation from nurse educators' perspectives

Ethical and cultural competence of social- and health care educators from educational institutions - Cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

The international mobility has increased cultural diversity in social- and health care. As such, ethical and cultural competence is an essential skill among educators. They are promoting the ethical and cultural competence and professional growth of students with diverse backgrounds and, therefore, must be ethically and culturally competent.

AIM

The aim of the study was to identify distinct ethical and cultural competence profiles of social- and health care educators and explore the associated factors.

RESEARCH DESIGN

A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used to collect quantitative observational data in 2020-2021. Competence profiles were identified by K-means clustering based on answers to an instrument focussing on educators' ethical and cultural competence.

PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT

Participants (N = 1179, n = 243) were social- and health care educators based at 10 universities of applied sciences and 10 vocational colleges in Finland.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The research adhered to good scientific practice. A research permit was received from each educational institution that participated in the study. The privacy of the participants was protected throughout the study.

RESULTS

The analysis identified three profiles of educators (A, B, C) based on self-assessed ethical and cultural competence. Profile A educators demonstrated high scores across all three competence areas. Profile B educators had high scores for ethical knowledge and intermediate scores for other competence areas. Profile C educators demonstrated intermediate scores across all three competence areas. An educator's pedagogical education was found to significantly influence which profile they belonged to.

CONCLUSIONS

The educators generally evaluated their ethical and cultural competence highly. Educators understand the importance of professional ethics in their work, but they need additional support in developing ethics skills in their daily work. Among all educators, there is a need for developing international and culturally diverse collaboration.

Distress of Educators Teaching Nursing Students with Potential Learning Disabilities: A Qualitative Analysis

Clinical training at Japanese nursing universities has an increasing need for individualized learning support for students with potential learning disabilities. Despite a high interest in student support, educators' difficulties are neglected. This study clarified the difficulties encountered by practical training instructors in delivering clinical training to nursing students with potential learning disabilities. In this descriptive, qualitative study, online focus group interviews were conducted. Participants were nine Japanese nursing university graduates with over five years of clinical education experience. A total of five categories were extracted: searching for measures tailored to students in a short period of time during training; resistance to individualized responses that significantly differ from traditional Japanese collectivist education; conflict over support being perceived as favoring a particular student; hesitation to identify students' limits; and barriers in the process of supporting difficulties due to the nature of learning disabilities. Practical training instructors experience difficulties and hesitation when teaching students with potential learning disabilities. The practical training instructors need support and educational opportunities as well as students who need help. To overcome these difficulties, university educational staff, as well as students and families, must be educated on the existence and value of support tailored to the characteristics of an individual's learning disability.

Discovering presence as part of nurse educators' role modelling at a public nursing college in the North West province

Background

Nursing students learn the science and art of nursing, including presence, from classroom content, using skills in practice, or by watching an experienced nurse interact with a patient. Nursing education must be designed so that nursing students can construct the art and science of nursing practice. Nursing students must be educated to be sound practitioners in the 'being' of nursing practice. Nurse educators modelling presence to nursing students will improve the quality of patient care during clinical training and throughout their professional role.

Aim

To explore and describe nurse educators' role modelling of presence to nursing students.

Setting

This study was conducted at a public nursing college in the North West province.

Methods

A qualitative, ethnographic study was conducted. Purposive sampling was used. Four nurse educators participated in the study and data saturation was reached. Data were collected through shadowing and informal reflective conversations over a period of 8 days.

Results

The following relationships emerged: nurse educators model 'being professional', 'being facilitating, nurturing, caring and compassionate, encouraging, and motivating', and 'being purposeful in their nursing education approach'.

Conclusion

Participants role modelled presence to nursing students despite daily challenges in their work.

Contribution

Creating awareness of how nurse educators can model presence despite daily challenges in their work will influence and motivate nursing students to develop presence skills. This will have a positive impact on managing patients in practice. Recommendations can guide nursing education, policy development and future research to strengthen nurse educators modelling presence.

Health and social care educators' ethical competence

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Educators' ethical competence is of crucial importance for developing students' ethical thinking. Previous studies describe educators' ethical codes and principles. This article aims to widen the understanding of health- and social care educators' ethical competence in relation to core values and ethos.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND KEY CONCEPTS

The study is based on the didactics of caring science and theoretically links the concepts ethos and competence.

METHODS

Data material was collected from nine educational units for healthcare and social service in Finland. In total 16 semi-structured focus group interviews with 48 participants were conducted. The interviews were analysed with a thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The study is approved by the Declaration of Helsinki, the legislation regarding personal data and the General Data Protection Regulation. The study received ethical permission from the University of Jyväskylä. Informed consent was obtained from all the educational units and participants in the study.

FINDINGS

The findings are presented based on three general patterns, an ethical basic motive, an ethical bearing and ethical actions. Subthemes are Humane view of students as unique individuals with individual learning, Bearing of tactfulness and firmness, Bearing of perceptiveness and accessibility, Bearing of satisfaction and joy over student learning, Valuing bearing towards each oneself and colleagues, Ability to interact and flexibility, Collegiality and a supportive work community and Educators as role models and inspirators.

CONCLUSION

Educators' personal and professional ethos is crucial to student learning, personal growth and ethical reasoning. Therefore, it is important to further develop educators' training regarding ethical competence.

Among nurses, how does education level impact professional values? A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Professional nursing values have been acknowledged globally as the foundation of daily nursing care practice. Understanding how nurses identify, comprehend and apply their professional nursing values is an important step towards improving nursing practice and patient care quality. Research has demonstrated that nurses' professional values are cultivated during prelicensure academic education.

AIM

The aim of this systematic review was to determine how level of education affects professional nursing values of clinical practising nurses.

METHODS

A systematic search of quantitative research published through December 2015 was performed in the following five electronic databases: CINAHL, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, Web of Science and Religion and Philosophy Collection. The search was not limited to country of origin. The studies were assessed for methodological quality using established criteria.

RESULTS

Of 1501 articles identified through the literature search, only seven studies met the inclusion criteria with the majority being of good to high quality. Most of the studies found registered nurses pursuing a bachelor of science in nursing or higher had a greater awareness and application of professional values than nurses with lower levels of academic or non-academic education. Nurses with higher education also embraced professional values as fundamental for quality nursing care practice.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND HEALTH POLICY

Health and academic institutions should support nurses through quality continuing and higher education that reinforces professional values, thus improving the quality of patient care.

CONCLUSIONS

The level of nurses' education appears to play an important role in developing both an awareness and an integration of professional values into practice. More research is needed to discover methods that may be used to promote nurses' professional values among nurses already practising clinically.

Fostering Ethical Integrity in Nursing Education

Nursing students bring an array of morals, values, and ethics that may be inconsistent with ethical integrity. This study explored nurse educator perceptions of student ethical integrity and how educators can foster an ethical foundation in students and novice educators. Four major themes influencing ethical integrity emerged: the learning environment, behaviors, ethical principles, and a toolbox of strategies. Strategies for fostering ethical integrity included: modeling ethical integrity, effective communication, grading accuracy, faculty perceptions, and faculty peer mentoring.

Spiritual development in Iranian nurses

BACKGROUND

Spiritual development is one of the most important aspects of socialization that has attracted the attention of researchers. It is needed to train nursing student and novice nurses to provide high-quality care for patients. There is ambiguity in the definition of spiritual development and its relations, especially in the eastern countries.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

To explore the concept of spiritual development in Iranian nurses.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Qualitative content analysis approach. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews. Participants and research context: The participants were 17 Iranian Muslim nurses selected using a purposeful sampling. The place of interviews was on their choice. Ethical considerations: Based on the principles of the Helsinki declaration, the focus was on preserving the participants' autonomy, confidentiality, and anonymity. The participants were told the study purposes and trends, and their rights were emphasized; they were then asked to sign written consent forms. Formal research approval was obtained from Kerman University of Medical Sciences. Ethical approval was granted by the University Ethics Committee before the study was conducted (K/92 etc).

FINDINGS

Three themes for spiritual development were defined: obligation to religion, commitment to ethics, and commitment to law. From the results, factors such as connection to the limitless divine power, personal and society-oriented ethical codes, and commitment to the law are proposed.

DISCUSSION

There are some differences between these findings and previous study, especially in the relation of the spirituality, religion, and law. Some studies, mostly Iranian, support these findings partially.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that it is better to teach nursing education based on humanistic principles, ethics, and law to the new generation of nurses to improve community health and development. More studies are needed to examine the relation between these themes.

Ethical principles in the work of nurse educator-A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

The application of ethical principles within the teaching profession and nursing practice forms the core of the nurse educator's professional ethics. However, research focusing on the professional ethics of nurse educators is scarce.

OBJECTIVES

To describe ethical principles and issues relating to the work of nurse educators from the perspectives of both nurse educators themselves and nursing students.

DESIGN

A descriptive study using cross-sectional data and content analysis.

SETTINGS

Nursing education program involving students from nine polytechnics in Finland.

PARTICIPANTS

Nursing students (n=202) and nurse educators (n=342).

METHODS

Data were derived from an online survey, with two open-ended questions: Nursing students and nurse educators were asked to name the three main ethical principles that guide the work of nurse educators and also to describe ethical issues involved in the work.

RESULTS

Students most often named professionalism, justice, and equality as the main ethical principles for a nurse educator. Nurse educators considered justice, equality, and honesty as the main ethical principles. The content analysis showed that professionalism and the relationship between educator and student were the key categories for ethical issues as perceived by nursing students. Nursing students most often identified inequality between the nurse educator and nursing student as the ethical issue faced by the nurse educator.

CONCLUSIONS

Nursing students and nurse educators differed somewhat both in their views of the ethical principles guiding an educator's work and in the ethical issues arising in the work.