The Purpose of this Descriptive Study was to Identify Nursing Ethics Education in Korea

Abstract

The target population was all nursing programs in Korea. A total of 38 community colleges (59.4%) and 31 BSN programs (86%) participated in the study. A structured questionnaire developed by the research team and mail and telephone interviews were used to collect data from July to October, 1999. Data analysis was done using SPSS PC+ to obtain frequencies and percentages. Data from three colleges were incomplete and therefore excluded leaving 66 for the final analysis. The findings are as followings: 1. In both community colleges and BSN programs, Ethics was a compulsory course but not as an independent course and the majority (80%) of the programs included ethics in an introductory course of the beginning level or a nursing management course in the upper level. 2. Allocation of hour varied. In community college programs, 50% allotted 1 credit and 34%, 2 credit In BSN programs, the average time was 9.32 hours of 28.67 hours (2 credits) when presented as an independent course. 3. Teaching methods consisted of mostly lectures and followed by case studies, discussion of themes, audiovisual and role play. The contents of courses were analyzed based on an objective list developed by the academy of nursing administration and indicated that 80% of both in community colleges and BSN programs cover professional ethics content and 70% of the programs dealt with ethical problems faced by nurses with clients or coworkers. However, the concepts of justice and accountability were not covered and issues of end of life care, nursing personnel shortage and incompetent practice were not found in any nursing programs despite the fact these are most frequent ethical problems for nurses. It is recommended that 1. Time allocation for nursing ethics needs to be strengthened. 2. Various teaching methods need to be developed. 3. Assessment of the training of teachers is needed.