PURPOSE: The purposes of this study was to find aesthetical-ethical paradigm of care ethics by understanding the unique moral character of care as an art and to suggest the optimal direction of nursing ethics. METHOD: This study used meaning-heuristic and -interpretive methods of hermeneutics based on philosophical aesthetic theory; Baumgarten's aesthetics, Schiller's theory of aesthetical education and Kant's theory of aesthetical judgement. RESULT: The concept of care implied aesthetical and ethical character; caring as an art was related to moral feeling based on human dignity und emotional communication in interpersonal-relationship. Caring as an art was interpreted as a moral ideal for the promotion of the humanity und the interaction in personal-relationship according to nursing theories. Philosophical aesthetics could provide the theoretical base for the interpretation of caring as an art. The proper paradigm of care ethics in nursing could be found in character-trait ethics and communication ethics according to the philosophical aesthetics. CONCLUSION: This study could show aesthetical-ethical paradigm of care ethics in nursing by the heuristic interpretation of caring as an art according to the philosophical aesthetics.
Education ; Esthetics ; Ethics* ; Ethics, Nursing ; Humans ; Nursing Theory ; Nursing* ; Personhood

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate the differences of the Code of Ethics, level of application of the Code of Ethics and consciousness of biomedical ethics of nurses about clinical practice experience, ethical values and biomedical ethics education experience of nursing students. METHODS: A descriptive research design, t-test and one-way ANOVA were used. The data were collected 1st June to 31st August 2016 from two large cities. The participants were 246 nursing students with a mean age of 22.57 years. Among them, 209 (84.6%) were female, 94 (38.2%) had clinical practice experience, 155 (63.0%) listed their ethical value as different depending on the situation, and 127 (51.6%) had biomedical ethics education experience. RESULTS: The scores were: awareness of the Code of Ethics of Nurses 4.29±0.60; application of the Code of Ethics of Nurses 4.24±0.64; and consciousness of biomedical ethics 2.91±0.19. There were significant differences in application of the Code of Ethics of Nurses (t=−1.97, p=.050); consciousness of biomedical ethics (t=−2.25, p=.025) related to clinical practice experience; and consciousness of biomedical ethics related to biomedical education experience (t=2.67, p=.007). CONCLUSION: Clinical practice and biomedical ethics education experience contributed to enhance the level of application of the Code of Ethics of Nurses and consciousness of biomedical ethics of nursing students.
Bioethics* ; Codes of Ethics* ; Consciousness* ; Education* ; Ethics ; Ethics, Nursing* ; Female ; Humans ; Nursing* ; Research Design ; Students, Nursing

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to study on 1) What is nursing students' experience of ethical problems involving nursing practice? 2) What is nursing students' experience of using ethical decision-making models? METHOD: In order to answer these two questions, we selected 97 senior baccalaureate nursing students from two Korean universities using a conceptual framework and method of content analysis. RESULT: From 97 ethical problems emerged five content categories, the largest being ethical problems involving health professionals (69%); the basic nature of the nursing students' experience of ethical problems consisted of conflict, resolution, and rationale; 94% of the students stated that using an ethical decision-making model was helpful. CONCLUSION: Although additional research is needed, these findings have important implications for nursing ethics education and practice.
Education ; Ethics, Nursing ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Nursing* ; Students, Nursing

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships among nursing students' knowledge, attitudes to advance medical directives and ethics values. METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional and descriptive survey, carried out with 232 students from two schools of nursing, one located in B and C city. Student nurses' knowledge, attitudes for advance medical directives and ethics values were measured using structured self-report questionnaires. Data were analyzed using t-test or one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficients. RESULTS: The scores for knowledge, attitudes for medical advance directives were 7.18 and 3.07, and for ethics values, 3.47. Nursing students' knowledge and attitude showed a significant difference depending on grade. Nursing students' ethics values showed significant differences depending on whether a study on ethics had been completed. A positive correlation was observed between nursing students' knowledge, attitudes for advance medical directives and ethics values. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that basic data for the development of an effective education program on ethics is important in establishing a positive attitude toward advance medical directives and the appropriate ethical values in student nurses.
Advance Directives ; Education ; Ethics ; Humans ; Nursing ; Students, Nursing

PURPOSE: This study was done to identify the experiences of ethical issues and needs for ethics education in clinical nurses. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was used and data were collected in 2013. Participants were 428 clinical nurses working in the general units of seven medical hospitals. The Ethical Issues in Clinical Practice Tool was used. Data analysis was performed using SPSS/WIN 19.0. RESULTS: 'Providing care with a possible risk to your health' was the most frequent and disturbing ethical problems for nurses. The highest helpful ethical topic was 'the patients' right, autonomy and informed consent'. The ethical issue experience was significantly different according to education level, work units, and type of employment. The necessity of ethics education was statistically different according to age, religion, level of education, duration of working as RN, position, shift type, and continuing education about nursing ethics. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that nursing educators need to provide practical ethics education based on frequent ethical issues and helpful education topics. These findings can be used in developing effective education strategies for clinical nurses and nursing organizations to improve nurses' ethical decision-making abilities.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Education* ; Education, Continuing ; Education, Nursing ; Employment ; Ethics* ; Ethics, Nursing ; Nursing ; Patient Rights ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: This study examines the effectiveness of an educational program of nursing biomedical ethics for nursing students to increase awareness of the Code of Ethics for Nurses, moral sensitivity, and application of the Code of Ethics for Nurses. METHODS: A quasi-experimental research design and t-test were used. The experimental group (n=31) and control group (n=32) were second-year university nursing students in two major cities. The experimental group received 15 hours of nursing ethics education during the 15-week semester. The training was not provided to the control group. RESULTS: The application of the Code of Ethics for Nurses increased significantly in the experimental group (t=−1.06, p=.017), nurses and patient (t=−2.23, p=.029), obligation of nurse as an expert (t=−2.08, p=.042), nurse and cooperator (t=−2.54, p=.014). The consciousness of biomedical ethics increased significantly in the experimental group (t=4.28, p=.021), newborn's right to live (t=−2.61, p=.011), euthanasia (t=−2.36, p=.021). CONCLUSION: The results of the study show that providing a nursing biomedical ethics program to nursing students is an effective method to enhance the application of the Code of Ethics for Nurses and Consciousness of Biomedical Ethics. Implementing an intervention program of the Code of Ethics for Nurses in the regular nursing curriculum may reduce conflicts involving ethical decision making by nurses.
Bioethics* ; Codes of Ethics* ; Consciousness* ; Curriculum ; Decision Making ; Education* ; Ethics ; Ethics, Nursing ; Euthanasia ; Humans ; Methods ; Morals ; Nursing* ; Research Design ; Students, Nursing*

This main purpose of this study was to assess the effects of two different types of ethics education on the moral judgement of clinical nurses. One type was free discussions among nurses with given specific moral issues and the other type was discussions guided by experts on specific moral issues. The study employed a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent pre test-post test design using two different control groups. The conceptual framework of the study was derived from the Kohlberg's Moral Development Theory (1969) and the Greipp's Ethical Decision-Making Model (1992). The data was collected during the period of October 14 through December 15, 1998. Sample consists of 32 nurses working in the ICU who met research criteria. 16 nurses were assigned to the free discussion group and 16 nurses to the group for the guided discussion with experts group. For the pre-test, the DIT which was developed by Rest (1984) and JAND by Ketefian (1998) were used with some modification by the author. After the education, only JAND was used to assess the changes in moral judgement. The collected data was analysed using SPSS PC program. The findings are as follows: 1. There was no significant difference between two groups in their general characteristics. Only difference which was statistically significant between two groups was that realistic score on Case 3/Medical Research and Autopsy was higher in the free discussion group. 2. Hypothesis 1: "There will be a difference on the moral judgement of nurses before and after they receive an ethics education". This hypothesis was supported partially. Those who had low scores on moral judgement before the education tended to have higher scores after the education on the same issues. And, after the education, the nurses tend to give lower scores on the dilemmas they had experienced frequently at work; while giving higher scores on those dilemmas they had no prior experience. 3. Hypothesis 2: "The effect of education may differ depended upon the moral development index [P(%)] score of nurses". The effect of education was different depend on moral development level. The group who's P(%) scores was low at the pretest has higher scores in realistic moral judgement after the education, while the groups with middle or high P(%) scores went down after the education. These changes were statistically significant in some cases, thus, the Hypothesis 2 was partially supported 4. Hypothesis 3: "The method of ethics education will have different effects on the moral judgement of nurses". Even though several nurses attended the guided discussion stated that the education program broadend their perspectives the difference between two groups was not significant and this hypothesis was not supported. In conclusion, both types of ethics education had helped the nurses to acquire the skills to deal some nursing dilemmas. The effects of ethics education may differ according to the moral development index - P(%) score. However, because of some of the limitations of this study, mainly small sample size, short term education, unable to control other variables which may affect moral judgement of nurses, further research is warranted.
Autopsy ; Education* ; Ethics* ; Moral Development ; Nursing ; Sample Size

PURPOSE: This study was performed to investigate the effects of a blended learning program on ethical values in undergraduate nursing students. METHODS: This study was a one group pretest-posttest design. Seventy-one undergraduate nursing students who were taking a nursing ethics course at K University in S city were conveniently selected. The blended learning program was undertaken for 120 minutes one day weekly for 15 weeks. It consisted of case-based learning through an online method combined with problem-based learning offline. Scores for ethical value were measured using the ethical values scale. RESULTS: The ethical values score increased significantly in the students after the blended learning (p=.004). Of the subgroup of ethical values human-life, relationship with collaborator, and nursing job scores increased significantly in students after the blended learning, respectively (p=.034; p<.001; p<.001), the score for area as relationship with nursing clients decreased significantly in the students after the blended learning (p<.001). CONCLUSION: The blended learning program was identified as an educational program which induces a positive effect on the development of ethical values in undergraduate nursing students, and in future it can be utilized in nursing ethics education.
Education ; Ethics, Nursing ; Humans ; Learning* ; Nursing ; Problem-Based Learning ; Students, Nursing*

PURPOSE: This study was done to develop a death education program for nursing students and evaluate the effects of the program. METHODS: The education program was developed based on ADDIE model. The death education program was developed on the base of educational needs, a comprehensive review of the literature and focus group interviews and then evaluated with 53 nursing students, 27 in the experimental and 26 in the control group. Measurement was done for the meaning of life using the tool by Choi et al (2005) for attitudes concerning death, the tool Thorson and Powell (1998) revised by Kim (2006) and for attitude to end-of-life patient care, the Attitudes toward Nursing Care of the Dying Scale by Frommelt (1991) translated by Cho and Kim (2005). RESULTS: The program consisted of five sessions: Understanding of death, Family bereavement care, Communication and End-of-life patient care, Professional role, and Ethics and legal issues There was a statistically significant difference between pretest and posttest for the meaning of life in the experimental group compared to the control group. About 82% of students in the experimental group were satisfied with the program. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that this program can be used to educate nursing students.
Education* ; Ethics ; Focus Groups ; Hospice Care ; Humans ; Nursing Care ; Nursing* ; Patient Care ; Professional Role ; Students, Nursing*

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to examine the associations among moral reasoning, empathy, communication self-efficacy, and moral sensitivity and to determine predictors of nurses' moral sensitivity. METHODS: Data were collected from 194 nurses in the Republic of Korea. Structured questionnaires consisted of the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire, Defining Issues Test, Jefferson Scale of Empathy, and Counseling Self-Estimate Inventory. The collected data were analyzed using t-tests, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and hierarchical regression analysis using SPSS ver. 21. RESULTS: Nurses' moral sensitivities were significantly associated with frequency of ethical education, empathy, and communication self-efficacy. In hierarchical multiple regression models, the significant factors of nurses' moral sensitivity were age (β=.21, p=.044), the frequency of experience in ethics education (β=.18, p=.007), empathy (β=.32, p < .001), and communication self-efficacy (β=.25, p=.001), which explained 33.2% of the variance in nurses' moral sensitivity. CONCLUSION: Our study findings show that nurses' moral sensitivity could be enhanced by more frequent ethics education programs. In addition, nursing ethics education might be developed to include potential strategies to improve empathy and self-efficacy in communication for high levels of moral sensitivity in nurses.
Counseling ; Education ; Empathy ; Ethics ; Ethics, Nursing ; Moral Development ; Morals ; Republic of Korea