Ethics Training Programs Research Articles

ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING: A CASE STUDY OF A VIRTUAL CLASS

This qualitative case study examines the ethical challenges of online teaching and learning in virtual classrooms. Data was collected through interviews and observations, and analyzed using thematic analysis informed by Rest's moral decision-making model. The study reveals that ethical challenges emerge from the complex interplay of technological, social, and pedagogical factors, influenced by broader cultural, institutional, and policy contexts of online education. Factors affecting ethical behavior include online tool features, users' technical skills and digital literacy, virtual community norms, power dynamics, instructional strategies, learning outcomes, regulations, accreditation standards, and ethical codes of conduct. To promote ethical conduct, a multi-faceted approach is recommended, addressing technological, social, pedagogical, institutional, and policy aspects. This includes developing ethical guidelines and training programs for educators and learners, and integrating ethical considerations into online education program design and implementation. Further research is needed to explore and address ethical challenges in online teaching and learning. This study emphasizes the significance of ethics in online education and the importance of proactive measures to tackle ethical issues.

Current status and demand for educational activities on publication ethics by academic organizations in Korea: a descriptive study

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the following overarching issues: the current status of research and publication ethics training conducted in Korean academic organizations and what needs to be done to reinforce research and publication ethics training.Methods: A survey with 12 items was examined in a pilot survey, followed by a main survey that was distributed to 2,487 academic organizations. A second survey, which contained six additional questions, was dispatched to the same subjects. The results of each survey were analyzed by descriptive statistical analysis, content analysis, and comparative analysis.Results: More than half of the academic organizations provided research and publication ethics training programs, with humanities and social sciences organizations giving more training than the others (χ<sup>2</sup>=11.190, df=2, P=0.004). The results showed that research and publication ethics training was held mostly once and less than an hour per year, mainly in a lecture format. No significant difference was found in the training content among academic fields. The academic organizations preferred case-based discussion training methods and wanted expert instructors who could give tailored training with examples.Conclusion: A systematic training program that can develop ethics instructors tailored to specific academic fields and financial support from academic organizations can help scholarly editors resolve the apparent gap between the real and the ideal in ethics training, and ultimately to achieve the competency needed to train their own experts.

Independence of Internal Auditors: Significance, Guidelines, and Influencing Factors

Internal auditing plays an immensely significant role in diverse areas, encompassing the preservation of financial reporting integrity, the fortification of investor confidence, the assurance of compliance with regulations, the detection of fraudulent activities and errors, the enhancement of corporate governance, the optimization of business efficiency, the evaluation of creditworthiness, the promotion of regulatory compliance and accountability, the fostering of trust and transparency, and the safeguarding of stakeholders' interests. This article seeks to underscore the pivotal importance of auditing and the function of audit impartiality in guaranteeing the dependability and credibility of financial information utilized in credit and investment resolutions. The article accentuates the inevitability of auditor independence in preventing conflicts of interest and preserving impartiality throughout the audit process. The paper concludes that incessant endeavors to reinforce auditor independence through resilient regulatory frameworks and ethical training programs are imperative to ensuring the integrity and credibility of the audit process.

Current status of approaches of Universities in fostering research ethics in Thailand

ABSTRACT Research ethics and integrity are essential topics that researchers should always be concerned about and are emphasized by academic communities around the world. However, there is currently little information about the mechanisms to regulate research ethics and integrity in Thailand. Therefore, the aims of this study were to determine the approaches that universities used to support research ethics and integrity in Thailand and also to identify the barriers that may obstruct the development. A questionnaire was used to explore the strategies about research ethics of 44 Thai universities. It was found that the first three mechanisms used to foster research ethics and integrity were establishment of institutional regulatory research committees (84%), conduction of research ethics training programs (77%), and policy adoption (68%). Interestingly, there was a significant association between the sizes of universities and establishment of institutional regulatory research committees. The medium and small universities might need more support to develop their own research ethics regulatory mechanisms. The results here indicated good signs for Thailand about preparing basic structures for fostering research ethics and integrity. The recognition of this current status could provide the useful information for future development of research integrity in Thailand.

Employee Ethics Training: Literature Review and Integrative Perspective

Employee ethics training programs are increasingly prevalent in today’s workplace. Despite the recognized need for such programs in organizations, our understanding of employee-focused ethics training programs and their effectiveness is limited. By conducting a literature review of peer-reviewed empirical studies on employee ethics training, we shed light on the state of the existing literature with a focus on the research characteristics of the identified studies. We also propose an integrative perspective on ethics training programs in organizations. The integrative framework outlines four types of ethics training along two key dimensions: orientation and contextualization. The study concludes by providing suggestions for future research.

How Supportive Ethical Relationships Are Negatively Related to Palliative Care Professionals' Negative Affectivity and Moral Distress: A Portuguese Sample.

In the modern healthcare landscape, moral distress has become an increasingly common phenomenon among healthcare professionals. This condition is particularly prevalent among palliative care professionals who are confronted with bioethical issues in their daily practice. Although some studies described the effects of poor ethical climate and negative affectivity on moral distress, how these variables could be incorporated into a single model is still unclear. Thus, this study aims to investigate whether ethical relationships with the hospital could be related to the intensity and frequency of moral distress, both directly and as mediated by professionals’ negative affectivity. Sixty-one Portuguese palliative care professionals completed web-based self-report questionnaires. After exploring descriptive statistics, mediation analyses were performed using the partial least squares method. The results indicated that the presence of positive relationships with the hospital reduced the professionals’ negative affectivity levels. This, in turn, led palliative care professionals to experience a lower frequency and intensity of moral distress. Being a physician was positively associated with negative affectivity but not with the frequency of moral distress. Considering the protective role of ethical relationships with hospitals, health organizations could consider implementing interventions to improve hospitals’ ethical climate and provide staff with ethics training programs.

Malpractice Awareness among Surgeons and Surgical Trainees in Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia, a country where seeing medical errors is not rare, there is a lack of data concerning the overall awareness of medical malpractice issues among physicians. A recent study showed that 80% of malpractice claims in Ethiopia are related to some form of surgery or operation room activities. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among surgeons and surgical trainees. Data were collected anonymously by an online survey using Google forms through a 56-items structured questionnaire. Subsequently, the data were analyzed and reported employing nonparametric statistical methods with SPSS software package 26. In our sample, the overall awareness regarding medical malpractice was relatively low. Surgery on a wrong patient (71.1%) was the most commonly reported form of malpractice, whereas unintended damage to adjacent organs (10.8%) was the most frequently disagreed up on form. In the event of a medical error, the majority (59.6%) reported readiness to disclose their error to the patient. The most common mentioned reason for not revealing a mistake was a threat of physical or verbal assault (68%). A significant number of respondents, i.e., 120(59.1%), reported being physically/verbally assaulted by a patient or their attendants at some point in their practice. The findings of our study provided a general picture of surgeons' and surgical trainees' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding medical malpractice. This study recommends more robust ethics and law training modules to surgical trainees, refresher courses to surgeons, and advanced training programs in ethics and law.

Small Business Leadership and Ethical Attributes That Influence Employee Job Satisfaction

Organizational leadership studies acknowledge that leadership styles positively affect job satisfaction. Currently, there are limited ethical, theoretical studies to investigate the relationship with job satisfaction. Therefore, there is a need for additional ethical leadership theories to explain conditions that may improve on negative organizational phenomena. This study investigated the relationship between the foundational leadership theory and job satisfaction. Foundational leadership is an inward (internal) and outward (employee perceived) examination of ethical decisions based on integrity, assurance, and pragmatism. The findings were based on 330 full-time entry and mid-level employees between ages 18 - 60+ across various industries in the United States. Cronbach’s alpha confirmed that integrity, assurance, and pragmatism is reliable measurement for ethical leadership. Pearson correlation revealed that the foundational leadership attributes of integrity, assurance, and pragmatism significantly correlate with employee job satisfaction. Finally, multiple linear regression results determine that ethical leadership training programs can teach Foundational Leadership to create job satisfaction. However, recurring leadership training should reinforce foundational leadership assurance (FLA) to foster job satisfaction within the leader-member exchange relationship.

Evaluation of the nursing ethics training programs by Certified Nurse Specialist:Focus on changes in nurse’s ethical awareness and behavior

Evaluation of the nursing ethics training programs by Certified Nurse Specialist:Focus on changes in nurse’s ethical awareness and behavior

Moral Awareness: A Source of Improved Sustainable Performance

Despite the increasing realization of the significance of work ethics and moral awareness (MA) in businesses after mega scandals, such as those of Enron and Tyco, few studies have investigated the relationship between MA and employees’ performance and the intermediate mechanisms that explain this relationship. This study proposes that as employees’ work ethics are calibrated through ethical training, their MA increases, in turn affecting employees’ job performance. This experimental study is aimed at investigating the impact of MA, increased through ethical training, on employees’ job performance. Based on institutional theory, the multidimensional work ethic profile (MWEP) and strategic human resource management literature, it is hypothesized that MA of employees’ is positively correlated with employees’ performance and that this relationship is moderated by the age, gender and education level of the employees. In particular, the moral awareness component of ethical decision-making (EDM) models is considered as coextensive with work ethics in experimental design, and work ethics is depicted by a multidimensional work ethic profile (MWEP). The study used a sample of 100 employees of a golf club, divided into an experiment group and a control group with 50 employees each. The experiment group was subjected to an ethical training program focused on increasing MA. Employees’ performance for both groups was evaluated based on eight sub-variables. The study concluded that increasing MA increases employees’ performance, with no significant moderation effect of age, gender and education level on this relationship. The results of this study will go a long way in helping managers to increase the productivity of their employees through increased MA.

An Entropy/TOPSIS based Model for Financial prioritization of professional ethics teaching methods in accounting

The collapse of large corporations such as Enron and WorldCom caused much concern about the ethical behavior of accountants among users of accounting service. Ethical behavior in accounting is one of the distinguishing features of accountants, which enable them to make the best decisions for stakeholders. Professional ethics learning plays a major role in the development of ethical behavior. Also, TOPSIS method is a well-known methodology that is applied in a various decision making problems. On the other hand, in order to determine the importance of criteria, the Entropy method is known as a powerful tools. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ethics teaching methods on the development of ethical behavior in accounting. This is done by means of an integrated Entropy/TOPSIS based Model for Financial prioritization of professional ethics teaching methods in accounting. The findings of the study showed that the variables of ethics education, style of teaching ethics and ethics textbook content respectively had a 1, 24 and 55 percent impact on the development of ethical behavior in accounting. The results of this study indicate that an ethical training program in accounting is needed to provide accountants with guidance on ethical issues and the importance of ethical standards.

Capacity Building for Primary Stroke Prevention Teams in Children Living With Sickle Cell Anemia in Africa

BackgroundNigeria has the highest proportion of children with sickle cell anemia (SCA) globally; an estimated 150,000 infants with SCA are born annually. Primary stroke prevention in children with SCA must include Nigeria. We describe capacity-building strategies in conjunction with two National Institutes of Health–funded primary stroke prevention trials (a feasibility trial and phase III randomized controlled trial) with initial hydroxyurea treatment for children with SCA and abnormal transcranial Doppler (TCD) velocities in Nigeria. We anticipated challenges to conducting clinical trials in a low-resource setting with a local team that had not previously been involved in clinical research and sought a sustainable strategy for primary stroke prevention. MethodsThis is a descriptive, prospective study of challenges, solutions, and research teams in two trials that enrolled a total of 679 children with SCA. ResultsAs part of the capacity-building component of the trials, over eight years, 23 research personnel (physicians, nurses, research coordinators, a statistician, and a pharmacist) completed a one-month research governance and ethics training program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, USA. A lead research coordinator for each site completed the Society of Clinical Research Professionals certification. TCD machines were donated; radiologists and nonradiologists were trained and certified to perform TCD. A scalable E-prescription was implemented to track hydroxyurea treatment. We worked with regional government officials to support ongoing TCD-based screening and funding for hydroxyurea for children with SCA at a high risk of stroke. ConclusionsOur trials and capacity building demonstrate a sustainable strategy to initiate and maintain pediatric SCA primary stroke prevention programs in Africa.

Postgraduate ethics training programs: a systematic scoping review

BackgroundMolding competent clinicians capable of applying ethics principles in their practice is a challenging task, compounded by wide variations in the teaching and assessment of ethics in the postgraduate setting. Despite these differences, ethics training programs should recognise that the transition from medical students to healthcare professionals entails a longitudinal process where ethics knowledge, skills and identity continue to build and deepen over time with clinical exposure.A systematic scoping review is proposed to analyse current postgraduate medical ethics training and assessment programs in peer-reviewed literature to guide the development of a local physician training curriculum.MethodsWith a constructivist perspective and relativist lens, this systematic scoping review on postgraduate medical ethics training and assessment will adopt the Systematic Evidence Based Approach (SEBA) to create a transparent and reproducible review.ResultsThe first search involving the teaching of ethics yielded 7669 abstracts with 573 full text articles evaluated and 66 articles included. The second search involving the assessment of ethics identified 9919 abstracts with 333 full text articles reviewed and 29 articles included. The themes identified from the two searches were the goals and objectives, content, pedagogy, enabling and limiting factors of teaching ethics and assessment modalities used. Despite inherent disparities in ethics training programs, they provide a platform for learners to apply knowledge, translating it to skill and eventually becoming part of the identity of the learner. Illustrating the longitudinal nature of ethics training, the spiral curriculum seamlessly integrates and fortifies prevailing ethical knowledge acquired in medical school with the layering of new specialty, clinical and research specific content in professional practice. Various assessment methods are employed with special mention of portfolios as a longitudinal assessment modality that showcase the impact of ethics training on the development of professional identity formation (PIF).ConclusionsOur systematic scoping review has elicited key learning points in the teaching and assessment of ethics in the postgraduate setting. However, more research needs to be done on establishing Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA)s in ethics, with further exploration of the use of portfolios and key factors influencing its design, implementation and assessment of PIF and micro-credentialling in ethics practice.

The Effect of Applying Ethical Training on the Performance of Salesmen: Applied to Some Egyptian Hotels

The research aims to determine the impact of the application of ethical training programs on the sales performance of salesmen (quantitative performance; qualitative performance), while identifying the most important obstacles facing Egyptian hotels in implementing ethical training and its impact on the performance of salesmen. It was applied to a random sample of sales and training managers in five-star hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh and Cairo. The data was collected through a pre-prepared questionnaire as a tool to measure the relationship and influence between the research variables. The statistical analysis program SPSS version 26 was used to analyze the data and test the study hypotheses. Among the results of the study, there is a strong positive effect between the application of ethical training programs and the sales performance of salesmen. The results also showed that there are obstacles in Egyptian hotels that prevent the application of these training programs that negatively affect the performance of salesmen. Considering these results, the study recommended paying attention to an ethical training approach for building a positive image of the hotel, by building trust and credibility with current and potential customers.

Competencies and Milestones for Bioethics Trainees: Beyond ASBH’s Healthcare Ethics Consultant Certification and Core Competencies

Clinical ethics training programs are responsible for preparing their trainees to be competent ethics consultants worthy of the trust of patients, families, surrogates, and healthcare professionals. While the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) offers a certification examination for healthcare ethics consultants, no tools exist for the formal evaluation of ethics trainees to assess their progress toward competency. Medical specialties accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) use milestones to report trainees’ progress along a continuum of professional development as a means of “operationalizing and implementing” medical competencies. Utilizing the Core Competencies for Healthcare Ethics Consultation and the ACGME and American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) Pediatric Milestones Project, we developed milestones for 17 subcompetencies in clinical ethics consultation and academic bioethics. As the field of clinical ethics becomes more standardized, such tools will be needed to promote the development of robust training programs and to certify that their graduates are competent practitioners.

A serviceable Research Biobank model: Charter of Principles and Biobank Ethics Consultation Service (BECS) as a formal toolkit to promote an expert ethical guidance to biobank research

The complexity of biobank research has recently increased generating a number of novel ethical issues. In recent years the University of Insubria is committed to provide specific training programs in Bioethics, Applied Ethics and Clinical Ethics aimed to face to critical topics related to medicine, research and biobanking. Actually we design the Insubria Biobank as a research infrastructure with an appropriate Ethical Framework and responsible for the custody of biospecimens and data according to a model of Charitable Trust. So to answer certain questions is crucial: How could biobank respect the trust placed in it? What resources could promote the goals of the biobank? Do professionals require a specific ethical training? This credit of trust must be fed and confirmed by the ethical choices of the biobank and ensuring maximum transparency and traceability of decisions. The aim of the Insubria Biobank is to become an ethical subject to secure the public trust and to define the ethics criteria to be made public and to which the biobank will comply. In our model we propose the prospective involved parties that could guarantee the achievement of this goal: Informed Consent, Charter of Principles and Biobank Ethics Consultation Services (BECS). Our purpose is to offer a Charter of Principles and BECS to help scientists, health care professionals, patients, donors, institutional review board and policymakers, better navigate the ethical issues in biobanking. An exploratory survey to identify the willingness to use BECS represent our future research plan.

Professional Ethics of Auditors and Its Impact on Audit Quality

This study investigates the professional ethics of auditors and its impact on audit quality. A qualitative literature review methodology was employed to synthesize findings from existing studies. The analysis revealed a nuanced relationship between auditors' ethical conduct and audit quality, with some studies indicating a positive association, while others presenting conflicting or inconclusive results. Factors such as organizational culture, ethical training, regulatory mechanisms, and client characteristics were identified as influential determinants of auditors' ethical behavior and audit quality outcomes. Theoretical implications suggest the need for further development to comprehensively understand the determinants and consequences of auditor ethics. Managerial implications highlight the importance of fostering a positive ethical culture, investing in ethical training programs, strengthening regulatory oversight, and prioritizing clients with strong ethical commitments. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on enhancing the effectiveness of auditing practices and regulatory mechanisms in safeguarding investor interests and maintaining confidence in financial markets.

A Little Goes a Long Way: Adapting an Ethics Training Program to Work for Smaller Universities.

The present project modified an existing ethics intervention aimed at graduate students, which had previously been evaluated and determined to be effective. The existing program was modified to shorten it from a 2 full-day training to a 1 full-day training. The effectiveness of the modified training program was evaluated using multiple dependent measures: perceptions of ethical dilemmas, ethical decision making and the using of cognitive strategies for ethical decision making, and reactions to the training. The results of the present study indicated that there were significant differences from pretraining to posttraining on measures of perceptions of ethical problems and markers of the cognitive processes involved in ethical decision making, including a focus on the ethical elements of the problem, and overall decision ethicality. Finally, participants reacted favorably to the program. Implications of these results are discussed.

Investigating the relationship between the ethical atmosphere of the hospital and the ethical behavior of Iranian nurses.

BACKGROUND:The ethical guidelines and ethical atmosphere of the hospital affect the quality of nursing care. Improving the health of patients in most cases depends on the observance of ethical points and ethical behaviors by nurses. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of hospital ethics and ethical training guidelines on improving the quality of nursing care and nurses’ professional ethics.MATERIALS AND METHODS:This is a descriptive-analytical study. This study was performed by multi-stage relative cluster sampling on 260 qualified nurses in 2014. Data were collected using the Hospital Ethical Climate Questionnaire and the Judgments about Nursing Decisions Questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software version 19.RESULTS:The results showed that nurses’ perceptions of the ethical climate of hospitals were relatively positive. The ethical behavior of nurses was moderate and good. Nurses’ perception of the ethical climate scores was not related to the ideal ethical behavior of nurses (r = 0.11, P = 0.86). The ethical climate perceptions of nurses were related to real workplace ethical behavior score (r = 0.188, P = 0.002). The results also showed that ethical guidelines can improve the quality of nursing care.CONCLUSION:Considering the results of this study, it seems that holding nursing ethics training programs can be a big step toward promoting the professional behavior of nurses and the observance of professional ethics by nurses.

Measuring Curriculum Effectiveness for Developing Principled Leaders in an Undergraduate Engineering Program

An objective of most undergraduate engineering curricula is to prepare students to solve challenging problems by applying technical knowledge and original ideas and then turn those into practical applications. The demand for principled engineering leaders amplifies the importance of integrating ethical leadership and decision making as a core element of curriculum design. This study seeks to provide insights into the research question of whether the use of an integrated leadership and ethics training program can improve an engineering student’s ability to make ethical engineering decisions as measured by the National Society of Professional Engineers Code of ethics practice exam.