Department of Nursing, Donggang University, Dongmun-Daero 50, Gwangju 61200, Korea.
College of Nursing, Research Institute of Nursing Science, Hallym University, Hallymdaehakgil 1, Chuncheon, Gangwon-do 24252, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jun 20;17(12):4442. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17124442.
Ethical conflicts among nurses can undermine nurses' psychological comfort and compromise the quality of patient care. In the last decade, several empirical studies on the phenomena related to ethical conflicts, such as ethical dilemmas, issues, problems, difficulties, or challenges, have been reported; however, they have not always deeply explored the meaning of ethical conflicts experienced by nurses in geriatric care. This study aims to understand the lived experiences of ethical conflict of nurses in geriatric hospitals in South Korea. A phenomenological study was conducted. In-depth, face-to-face interviews were performed with nine registered nurses who cared for elderly patients in geriatric hospitals in South Korea between August 2015 and January 2016. Three main themes emerged from the analysis: (1) confusing values for good nursing, (2) distress resulting from not taking required action despite knowing about a problem, and (3) avoiding ethical conflicts as a last resort. It was found that for geriatric nurses to cope with ethical conflicts successfully, clear ethical guidance, continuing ethics education to improve ethical knowledge and moral behaviors, and a supportive system or program to resolve ethical conflicts involving nurses should be established.
护士伦理冲突会破坏护士的心理舒适度，并影响患者护理质量。在过去十年中，已经有几项关于与伦理冲突相关的现象的实证研究，例如伦理困境、问题、难题、困难或挑战；然而，这些研究并不总是深入探讨老年护理护士所经历的伦理冲突的含义。本研究旨在了解韩国老年医院护士伦理冲突的真实体验。采用现象学研究方法。2015 年 8 月至 2016 年 1 月期间，对韩国老年医院的 9 名注册护士进行了深入的面对面访谈，这些护士负责照顾老年患者。通过分析得出了三个主要主题：（1）对良好护理的价值观感到困惑；（2）尽管了解问题，但因未采取必要行动而感到痛苦；（3）作为最后的手段避免伦理冲突。研究结果表明，为了让老年护士成功应对伦理冲突，应制定明确的伦理指导方针、持续的伦理教育以提高伦理知识和道德行为，以及建立一个支持性的系统或方案来解决涉及护士的伦理冲突。
