The effect of ethics training on students recognizing ethical violations and developing moral sensitivity

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Bioethics
• Medical Ethics

Background:

• Moral sensitivity is a crucial lifelong cognitive ability for nurses.
• Ethics education is believed to enhance nurses' moral sensitivity and professional behavior.
• Nurses are expected to possess highly developed moral sensitivity due to their role in human care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the effect of ethics training on fourth-year nursing students.
• To assess the impact of training on recognizing ethical violations in a hospital setting.
• To evaluate the development of ethical sensitivity among nursing students post-intervention.

Main Methods:

• Intervention research involving 50 fourth-year nursing students (25 per group).
• Experiment group received ethics training and consultancy; control group did not.
• Data collected via socio-demographic forms, Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire, and observation of ethical principle violations/protection.

Main Results:

• Post-training moral sensitivity scores showed a non-significant increase in the experiment group.
• The experiment group demonstrated a statistically significant increase in observing ethical principle protection/violations and providing correct examples.
• Ethics training enabled students to better distinguish ethical violations in a hospital environment.

Conclusions:

• Ethics education is effective in improving nursing students' ability to identify and observe ethical violations.
• The study highlights the practical application of ethics training in clinical settings.
• Further research may explore methods to significantly enhance moral sensitivity scores through targeted ethics education.