Does Ethics Education Influence the Moral Action of Practicing Nurses and Social Workers?

Abstract

Purpose/methods: This study investigated the relationship between ethics education and training, and the use and usefulness of ethics resources, confidence in moral decisions, and moral action/activism through a survey of practicing nurses and social workers from four United States (US) census regions. Findings: The sample (n = 1215) was primarily Caucasian (83%), female (85%), well educated (57% with a master's degree). no ethics education at all was reported by 14% of study participants (8% of social workers had no ethics education, versus 23% of nurses), and only 57% of participants had ethics education in their professional educational program. Those with both professional ethics education and in-service or continuing education were more confident in their moral judgments and more likely to use ethics resources and to take moral action. Social workers had more overall education, more ethics education, and higher confidence and moral action scores, and were more likely to use ethics resources than nurses. Conclusion: Ethics education has a significant positive influence on moral confidence, moral action, and use of ethics resources by nurses and social workers.

Keywords:

• ethics education
• moral action
• ethics consultation

Acknowledgment

The authors thank the many social workers and nurses who took the time to contribute to this study. We also want to thank the Center for Survey Research at University of Virginia for helping to develop and conduct the survey and Yueh-Yen Fang, MSN, for her help with the statistical analysis. The opinions expressed are the authors' own and do not represent any position or policy of the United States National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, or Department of Health and Human Services.

Notes

∗ Significant difference between registered nurse and social workers.

∗Respondents could indicate more than one source; percentages will not add to 100; 19 people (8 registered nurses and 11 social workers) did not respond to this question.

∗Responses vary significantly by source of ethics education (Chi-square = 11.93, df = 3, p = .008).

∗ Only those respondents who indicated their organization/hospital had an ethics consultation service or ethics committee (n = 309 social workers; n = 293 registered nurses).

∗ No ethics education served as reference group. Final R² = .301 (adj. R² = .284)