The Effect of Ethics Course in Nursing on Students' Inclination to Ethical Values and Ethical Decision Making: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Abstract

ABS TRACT Educational programmes should be designed to improve nurses' awareness due to ethical problems associated with their professional practice. This study aimed to determine the effect of ethics in nursing course on students' inclination to ethical values and their ethical decision-making. The study was conducted based on quasi-experimental design with one-group pre-test and post-test. The study was conducted with 42 nursing students between September 2022-January 2023. The data were collected using a questionnaire prepared by the researcher based on the literature, the "Nursing Dilemma Test" and the "Inclination to Ethical Values Scale". Descriptive data were expressed as a number, percentage, mean, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum values, and the Shapiro-Wilk test was used to test the compatibility of the data to the normal distribution. The Wilcoxon signed rank test, Mann-Whitney U test, dependent samples t-test were used to analysing the difference between dependent and independent variables. A statistically significant positive difference was found on the practical consideration (PC) at the end of the training. The mean scores of female students in the principled thinking and the mean scores of students who loved their department on the cooperation were higher. Ethics course in nursing has a positive effect on students' PC. Loving the profession has positive effects on professional values. Since it is considered that it would positively contribute to the students' ability to distinguish ethical problems, it is recommended to train students on ethical issues before the courses of clinical practice begin.