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

Scholarly article writing and publishing in international peer-reviewed journals can become an overwhelming task for many medical, nursing, and healthcare professionals in a university setting, especially in countries whose native language is not English. To help improve their scientific writing skills and publishing capacity, a university-based editing system and writing programs can be developed as educational platforms. These are delivered by a team of specialist editors composed of tenured faculty members who have a strong medical background and extensive experience in teaching courses on medical research, editing, writing, and publishing. For the editing system, the specialist editors provide comprehensive editing, personalized consultation, full editorial support after peer review, guidance with online submissions/resubmissions, and detailed editorial review at different stages of the manuscript writing. In addition, the specialist editors can develop writing programs such as medical writing and editing internships, academic courses in medical writing or research study designs and reporting standards, special interactive lectures and sessions on predatory publishing, seminars on updated editorial guidance of global editorial associations, academic visits on medical writing and editing, medical writing mentoring program, networking programs in scholarly communication, and publication resources in medical writing and scholarly publishing. These editing system and writing programs can serve as integrated platforms for improving scientific writing skills and publishing capacity by providing continuing education in medical writing, editing, publishing, and publication ethics.
Delivery of Health Care ; Education, Continuing ; Ethics ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Lectures ; Medical Writing ; Mentors ; Nursing ; Peer Review ; Publications ; Specialization ; Writing*

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 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*

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

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to elucidate clinical nurses' ethics germane to information literacy and perception of patient data privacy and thus help nurses to develop more positive and consolidated ethical values. METHODS: For this study a descriptive survey design was used. Participants were 142 nurses who worked in a hospital and completed self-report questionnaires. Data were collected from August 1 to 5, 2016 and were analyzed using independent t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression with SPSS 22.0. RESULTS: Ethical value had a positive correlation with information needs (r=.25, p=.002) in information literacy as well as in direct patient care (r=.27, p=.001), shift work (r=.20, p=.016), patient information management (r=.39, p<.001), and communication (r=.24, p=.004) in perception of patient data privacy. Patient information management, educational background, and age were significant variables predicting the level of ethical values and accounted for 21% of the variance. CONCLUSION: Ethical values education with particular emphasize on managing patient information should be encouraged for nurses who are younger and have a lower education level. Findings indicate a need for education programs to guide clinical nurses to utilize appropriate information when solving ethical challenges in every day nursing practice.
Confidentiality* ; Education ; Ethics ; Humans ; Information Literacy* ; Information Management ; Nursing ; Patient Care

PURPOSE: This study was done to analyze nursing students' attitudes to life-sustaining treatment by measuring their awareness of biomedical ethics and resulting attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. METHODS: This study was a descriptive research to assess the level of nursing students' awareness of biomedical ethics, attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, and correlations between these variables. After the nursing students signed a consent form they were assessed. Data collection was done from September 1 to October 25, 2016, and analyzed using SPSS 23.0 WIM Program. RESULTS: There was a negative correlation and significant difference between nursing students' awareness of biomedical ethics and attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. There was a significant correlation among attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and medical ethics, mortality ethics. CONCLUSION: The findings in the study indicate that it is necessary to provide nursing students with easy access to continuous education to help them establish an acceptable view of withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.
Bioethics* ; Consent Forms ; Data Collection ; Education ; Ethics ; Ethics, Medical ; Humans ; Life Support Care ; Mortality ; Nursing* ; Students, Nursing

PURPOSE: The aimof this study was to identify bibliographic characteristics and research trends of articles published in the Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research from2009 to 2015. METHODS: Descriptive statistics were used to analyze 268 articles. Bibliographic characteristics, appropriateness ofmethods for quantitative and qualitative studies, and key concepts of articles were analyzed. RESULTS: A clinical nurse was the first author for 184 (66.7%) articles. The number of collaborative works between hospital and university was 184 (68.7%). Study participants were patients (120, 38.1%), nurses (115, 36.5%) and others. IRB approval was given for 156 articles (58.2%). Written informed consent was obtained in 125 articles (46.7%). Quantitative research accounted for 98.6% of the articles but qualitative studies only 4 (1.4%). Types of interventions in the experimental studies were nursing skills (43, 42.6%) and health education (32, 31.7%). Major keywords were nurses, pain, knowledge, intensive care unit, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and stress. CONCLUSION: Articles in this journal deal with topics and concepts confronted in nursing practice so experimental studies on applicability of nursing interventions were frequently published. Findings in this study indicate that the authors published in the journal contribute to the development of nursing with characteristics distinctive from other nursing journals published in Korea.
Anxiety ; Clinical Nursing Research ; Depression ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Fatigue ; Health Education ; Humans ; Informed Consent ; Intensive Care Units ; Korea ; Nursing ; Republic of Korea

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore ethical problems that cause moral distress in nurses and affects the quality of care provided by community mental health nurses working in community mental health settings. METHODS: Three focus group interviews were held with 14 nurses working in 3 community mental health centers in Korea. Qualitative descriptive methods and qualitative content analysis were used. RESULTS: Data analysis found 5 domains (decision making, communication, resources, safety, advocacy), 9 categories (personal information sharing issues, ethical insensibility, collisions between principles and practice, institutions unprepared in ethical problems, ethical dilemma in interactions with clients, problems with the evaluation system, problems with the budget structure, problems with the lack of safety measure, and problems with role limitation as a professional) and 11 subcategories. CONCLUSION: Results of this study suggest a) a need for further research on identifying ethical conflicts arising in community mental health fields, and b) on what nurses actually do when they deal with ethical conflicts, c) efforts to develop ethics support programs such as ethics education, training and reflection meetings to enhance nurses' ethical sensitivity, d) consideration of a supportive environment and culture that prioritizes ethical concerns in practitioners as well as administrators.
Administrative Personnel ; Budgets ; Community Mental Health Centers ; Education ; Ethics ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Information Dissemination ; Korea* ; Mental Health Services ; Mental Health* ; Nursing ; Qualitative Research ; Statistics as Topic

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