Professional ethics in nursing: an integrative review

To conduct an integrative review and synthesize current primary studies of professional ethics in nursing.

Professional ethics is a familiar concept in nursing and provides an ethical code for nursing practice. However, little is known about how professional ethics has been defined and studied in nursing science.

Systematic literature searches from 1948-February 2013, using the CINAHL, PubMed and Scopus electronic databases to look at previously published peer-reviewed studies.

A modified version of Cooper's five-stage integrative review was used to review and synthesize current knowledge.

Fourteen papers were included in this research. According to our synthesis, professional ethics is described as an intra-professional approach to care ethics and professionals commit to it voluntarily. Professional ethics consist of values, duties, rights and responsibilities, regulated by national legislation and international agreements and detailed in professional codes. Professional ethics is well established in nursing, but is constantly changing due to internal and external factors affecting the profession.

Despite the obvious importance of professional ethics, it has not been studied much in nursing science. Greater knowledge of professional ethics is needed to understand and support nurses' moral decision-making and to respond to the challenges of current changes in health care and society.