Abstract
Background:Ethical challenges are common in clinical nursing practice, and an infectious environment could put nurses under ethical challenges more easily, which may cause nurses to submit to negative emotions and psychological pressure, damaging their mental health.Purpose:To examine the ethical challenges encountered by nurses caring for patients with the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) and to provide nurses with suggestions and support regarding promotion of their mental health.Research design and method:A qualitative study was carried out using a qualitative content analysis. The participants were 18 nurses who agreed to attend an interview and describe their own experiences of providing care to COVID-19 patients in China. They were purposively sampled, and structured, in-depth interviews were performed. Data were iteratively collected and analyzed from February to March 2020.Ethical considerations:The proposal was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Second Hospital of Shandong University, China.Findings:The findings revealed three main themes and 10 categories. The themes were the following: (1) ethical challenges (people with COVID-19, inequality, professional ethics, and job competency); (2) coping styles (active control and planning, seeking support as well as catharsis, and staying focused); and (3) impacts on career (specialized nursing skills, scientific research ability, and management skills).Conclusion:Nurses faced ethical challenges on multiple fronts in caring for COVID-19 patients. The results may help nurses with more safety, ethics, and humanistic care in nursing practice.
Highlights
Ethical challenges are common in clinical nursing practice.[1,2,3] The expression “ethical challenges” mainly refers to ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts as well as other scenarios where difficult choices have to be made.[4]
The study results showed that the major ethical challenges encountered by nurses came from patients, inequality, professional ethics, and job competency
With the global threat posed by COVID-19, we studied the ethical challenges faced by nurses in caring for COVID-19 patients through in-depth one-on-one interviews
Summary
Ethical challenges are common in clinical nursing practice.[1,2,3] The expression “ethical challenges” mainly refers to ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts as well as other scenarios where difficult choices have to be made.[4]. Purpose: To examine the ethical challenges encountered by nurses caring for patients with the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) and to provide nurses with suggestions and support regarding promotion of their mental health. The participants were 18 nurses who agreed to attend an interview and describe their own experiences of providing care to COVID-19 patients in China. They were purposively sampled, and structured, in-depth interviews were performed. The themes were the following: (1) ethical challenges (people with COVID-19, inequality, professional ethics, and job competency); (2) coping styles (active control and planning, seeking support as well as catharsis, and staying focused); and (3) impacts on career (specialized nursing skills, scientific research ability, and management skills). The results may help nurses with more safety, ethics, and humanistic care in nursing practice
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