Ethical decision-making in nursing: implications for continuing education

Staff nurses make ethical decisions daily. It is important that nurses know how to manage those decisions appropriately so that clients' ethical rights are honored without compromising the nurse's own moral conscience. In this phenomenological study, 19 staff nurses described their experiences in making ethical decisions in their practices. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using Giorgi's phenomenological steps. The description of the nurses' experiences identified two distinct components of the ethical decision-making process: deliberation and integration. The findings suggest that nurses need to: a) recognize the ethical nature of their work, b) discern which ethical decisions are theirs to make, and c) acknowledge their authority to make ethical decisions in their practices. These findings have important implications for the continuing education of nurses regarding ethical decision-making.