Nurses performance in clinical ethics committees and commissions: An integrative review

Abstract

This was an integrative review of articles published in national and international journals between 1994 and 2016 which described the participation of nursing professionals in ethics commissions. Participants and research context: A total of 35 articles were selected. Discussion and conclusion for this article: The thematic categories were the need for time to discuss ethical issues; ethics committee to reduce the moral suffering of professionals; competencies required for participation; and barriers/difficulties and facilitators for implementation/ performance. It was concluded that professionals recognize the need for ethics committees to foster discussions. However, barriers hamper operation and fundamental competencies for participation. Communication of committee activities to professionals and educational activities may be major allies to improve the functioning of these committees.

Evaluating assessment tools of the quality of clinical ethics consultations: a systematic scoping review from 1992 to 2019

“…(a) the personal and professional attributes of CEC members [7,16,79,[81][82][83][84][85][86] and the composition, training, experience [70,[78][79][80] and skillset of the team [69, 78-81, 83, 86-96] carrying out the CECons (92-94); (b) the approach adopted and if it considered the ethical, legal, moral, financial, clinical and professional issues holistically and objectively, and whether the process considered prevailing sociocultural and practical issues [5,14,73,88,[99][100][101]105] in a confidential manner [15,79,90,103,108]. Also considered was if the CECons was timely [31,79,109,110], well-documented, structured, accessible [5,9,31], clearly communicated [5,77,79,91,92,99,[111][112][113][114][115][116]…”

“…The primary reason for evaluating CECons was to certify [67][68][69] or accredit [9] CEC consultants to ensure that they possessed the 'necessary competencies' [70]. CECons were also assessed to determine their impact on patient care [18,[71][72][73][74][75] and benchmark their programs against prevailing standards [17,76,77].…”

“…The CEC consultant's character, performance and values were seen to influence the perception, process and outcome of CECons. Desired personal attributes included tolerance, patience, compassion, honesty, self-knowledge, courage, prudence, humility, and integrity [70,[78][79][80]. Professional proficiencies sought after included prior training and experience with CEC practices [7,16,79,[81][82][83][84][85][86], ethico-legal knowledge [69, 78-81, 83, 86-96] and active involvement in promoting awareness of ethical issues in the clinical environment [80,91,92].…”

Ethics in nursing: categorization of legal processes

“…The results showed that nursing professionals recognize the importance of commissions, and for such insertion, specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes are required to work in the area. Greater contact between NECs and professionals through educational activities can contribute to greater bonding between professionals, service, and regulatory bodies (20) . Currently, the state of Goiás has 62 NECs, which shows the strengthening of these instances as representatives of the Council.…”

“…Thus, the high frequency of ethical infractions observed in this study reflects the low adherence of professionals to NCPE, which suggests a deficit in the knowledge of ethical-legal aspects of the profession (25) . Therefore, to reduce the gap between professional practice and compliance with nursing regulations, there is a need to implement strategies such as the implementation of NECs (20) and the development of ethical competences during the training period (26) .…”