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Nurse educators are obligated to design protocols that include ethical sensitivity when conducting education research using students as participants. Because students are vulnerable to the power differential between them and faculty, the principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, veracity, and justice can help researchers make choices that are intended to preserve the trust and respect formed during this collegial relationship. This article presents the basic assumptions and examples of how these principles have been applied to nursing education research.

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The relationship between patient safety and nurse education level has implications for current and prospective nurses, hospital administrators, policy makers, and nurse educators. This integrative literature review assesses the current state of science on the topic during a 20-year period, using the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality's Patient Safety Indicators to measure outcomes. Twenty-four studies of variable quality were included. Although studies suggest that increasing RN dose (i.e., number of care hours) and skill mix (versus LPN) are associated with improved patient safety, evidence linking RN education level (i.e., BSN, ADN, diploma) is sorely lacking.