Nurses' Strategies for Conscience-based Care Delivery: A Qualitative Study

Conscience is the core of ethical values. It helps nurses protect patients' rights and provide quality dignified care. Therefore, assessing nurses' strategies for conscience-based care may help facilitate conscience-based care delivery.

This study aimed to explore nurses' strategies for conscience-based care delivery.

This qualitative study was conducted in 2018 on twelve hospital nurses purposively recruited from four teaching hospitals in Urmia, Iran. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and inductively analyzed through conventional content analysis.

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Urmia University of Medical Sciences. All the participants were informed of the aim of the study and a written consent was obtained from each of them. Participation in the study was entirely voluntary and the participants could withdraw at any stage of the study.

Participants' strategies for conscience-based care delivery were grouped into two main themes, namely self-empowerment for clinical role performance and attempt to deliver care beyond the routines.

Clinical self-empowerment and attempt to deliver care beyond the routines are nurses' main psychosocial strategies for conscience-based care delivery. Mentorship programs are recommended for the development of nurses' time management and clinical skills and thereby, empower them for conscience-based care delivery. Moreover, continuing education programs and curricular revisions are recommended to strengthen their religious beliefs.