Abstract
Objective:to identify the main ethical problems and how these relate to the moral sensitivity of nurses working in a general medicine ward.Method:this qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive study was conducted in a university hospital located in the south of Brazil. A total of 18 nurses working in a general medicine ward were interviewed. A semi-structured interview script was used, and data were analyzed using discursive textual analysis.Results:nurses considered the main ethical problems to include conflicts at the institutional level, situations involving conflicts with patients and/or family members, and conflicts within the staff. The perception of nurses and how they deal with these problems relate to moral sensitivity. Two categories emerged: experiencing ethical problems, and relationship with moral sensitivity.Conclusion:because of the multidimensional nature of moral sensitivity, it trains and enables nurses to recognize and deal with ethical problems faced in clinical practice so that nurses become able to make fair and prudent decisions, improving the quality of nursing care.
Highlights
Nursing care, especially clinical practice, is permeated by an interdependent complex work process, which is inherently an ethical practice in which ethical decisions are made when facing tension, problems and conflicts[1].Nurses working in a hospital context play an essential role when providing care to clinical patients, especially in terms of decision-making
The categorization process followed the main ethical problems reported by the nurses interviewed in the general medicine ward, which resulted in three elements called “institutional conflicts, situations of conflict with patients and/or family members, and conflicts within the staff.”
Moral sensitivity trains and enables nurses to perceive situations of conflict and make morally appropriate clinical decisions both when dealing with institutional conflicts and conflicts established between staff and patients
Summary
Nurses working in a hospital context play an essential role when providing care to clinical patients, especially in terms of decision-making. For this reason, nurses need to be morally sensitive, have knowledge, experience, and dynamism so that conflicts faced in daily practice that are related to a divergence of values, uncertainty regarding decision-making, and struggles in the relationship established with others, do not result in ethical problems[2,3]. Nurses are often unable to identify these dimensions because their knowledge and skills are tested daily in their practice, resulting in ethical problems[5]
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