Aitamaa Elina, Leino-Kilpi Helena, Iltanen Silja, Suhonen Riitta
University of Turku, Finland; Satakunta Hospital District, Finland
University of Turku, Finland; Turku University Hospital, Finland.
Nurs Ethics. 2016 Sep;23(6):646-58. doi: 10.1177/0969733015579309. Epub 2015 Apr 21.
Nurse managers have responsibilities relating to the quality of care, the welfare of the staff and running of the organization. Ethics plays significant role in these responsibilities. Ethical problems are part of daily management, but research in this area is limited.
The aim of this study was to identify and describe ethical problems nurse managers encounter in their work to get more detailed and extensive view of these problems.
The data consisted of nine interviews with nurse managers at different management levels in primary healthcare and specialized healthcare organizations, and it was analysed by inductive content analysis.
Permission to conduct the interviews including ethical approval was given at all participating organizations according to national standards. The respondents were informed about the aim of the study, and voluntary participation, anonymous response and confidentiality were explained to them.
Four main categories were found: conflicts in practical situations, lack of appreciation, disregard of problems and experienced inadequacy. Problems could also be divided to patient-related, staff-related, organization-related and other problems.
The findings correspond with results from earlier studies but add knowledge of the nature and details of nurse managers' ethical problems. New information is produced related to the ethical problems with nurse managers' own courage, motivation and values.
Nurse managers identified a variety of different ethical problems in their work. This information is useful in the development of ethics in nursing management. Further research about the frequency and intensity of nurse managers' ethical problems is needed as well as possible differences in different levels of management.
护士长负责护理质量、员工福利及机构运营。伦理在这些职责中发挥着重要作用。伦理问题是日常管理的一部分，但该领域的研究有限。
本研究旨在识别并描述护士长在工作中遇到的伦理问题，以更详细、全面地了解这些问题。
数据包括对基层医疗和专科医疗组织中不同管理级别的护士长进行的九次访谈，并采用归纳性内容分析法进行分析。
根据国家标准，所有参与组织均批准了包括伦理批准在内的访谈许可。向受访者说明了研究目的，并向他们解释了自愿参与、匿名回答和保密原则。
发现了四个主要类别：实际情况中的冲突、缺乏认可、忽视问题和感到能力不足。问题还可分为与患者相关、与员工相关、与组织相关及其他问题。
研究结果与早期研究结果一致，但增加了对护士长伦理问题的性质和细节的了解。产生了与护士长自身勇气、动机和价值观相关的伦理问题的新信息。
护士长在工作中识别出了各种不同的伦理问题。这些信息对护理管理中的伦理发展很有用。还需要进一步研究护士长伦理问题的频率和强度，以及不同管理级别可能存在的差异。
