An analysis of ethical issues experienced by nursing students in the early stage of clinical practices

本研究の目的は、看護倫理の教育プログラム作成への示唆を得るため、初期の看護学実習における学生の倫理的体験の特徴を知ることである。対象は看護系４年制大学２年次学生50名であり、実習での倫理的体験について倫理原則に基づく６つの観点から記述してもらった。その結果、プライバシーや安全・安楽に関する記述が多く、授業で強調されてきた観点に関する倫理性は内面化しつつあること、対象学生の多くは問題状況を分析するレベルにとどまっており、倫理的体験の内容は学生の倫理的認識力により違いがあることが明らかになった。以上から、初学者における看護倫理教育では、看護の倫理的な側面を早期から強調すること、学生の倫理的認識力の実態を考慮した看護倫理教育を行う必要があることが示唆された。This study is an attempt to identify the ethical issues that have been encountered by nursing students in the early stage of their clinical experiences. The purpose of the study is to obtain actual issues in the clinical area to assist in developing an educational program of an early nursing curriculum content. The sample of 50 nursing students (sophomores in the nursing program of an university) were asked to participate in this study by describing their ethical experiences according to the six ethical principles for professional conduct during clinical practices, such as problems, difficulties and conflicts. The result of the study is that most of nursing students were aware of the principles of ethical implications in "privacy", "safety", and "comfort" which have been discussed in classrooms. Those nursing students were able to analyze ethical issues. However, their abilities in problem-solving and decision making dealing with ethical dilemmas were limited. In addition, as for the ability to recognize ethical issues, we found that there were divergences among individual nursing students. These results provide beneficial support for development of an educational program for nursing ethics in the early stage of nursing curriculum