Exploring the Role of Nursing Ethics in Shaping Information Security Culture: A Normative and Care Ethics Perspective

An appropriate information security culture (ISC) is essential for protecting patient privacy and safety. This study aims to explore the role of normative and care ethics in shaping ISC and to propose a novel nursing ethics ISC framework.

The study employed a qualitative exploratory design based on semistructured interviews, including nurses and IT experts. Realistic scenarios involving two fictional registered nurses (RNs) were used to mitigate potential biases and encourage open and honest discussion on sensitive topics. Thematic analysis was used to derive insights from different participant perspectives.

Semistructured interviews were conducted between 23 November 2019 and 22 June 2020 with 13 nurses and four IT experts working in clinical settings in Slovenia. A thematic analysis was conducted.

Our in-depth analysis shows that ISC is shaped by both normative and ethics of care perspectives, supporting the proposed nursing ethics ISC framework. Normative factors included procedural security countermeasures, direct superior's commitment to information security, information security knowledge, and security monitoring. Additionally, we identified two factors related to ethics of care, namely, attention to patient dignity, and attentiveness to and alleviation of patient vulnerability.

This is one of the first studies to provide support for including both normative and ethics of care perspectives when studying ISC in the context of nursing ethics. The identified ISC factors also provide a reference for future research endeavors, such as the operationalization of instruments for measuring these concepts in nursing.