Moral integrity and moral courage: can you teach it?

Nursing has been spared the ethical scandal of many other professions, but issues of compromised moral integrity are growing in practice and education. This study was structured to investigate faculty perceptions of the challenges encountered regarding moral integrity in academia and strategies to promote nursing students' moral integrity and moral courage. A content analysis of the responses to questions about challenges and strategies was completed. Themes identified from the data on student and instructor beliefs and behaviors correspond to those found in the literature. The need for instructors to model a high level of integrity and to create high-integrity classrooms and a community of learning were identified as essential. A finding different from other study results is that beliefs drive moral behaviors and must be the focus of strategies for change. A consensus was expressed that mechanisms are urgently needed to further identify and integrate strategies to enhance student moral integrity.