title: Moral decision making in neonatal intensive care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To gain information about the perspective that neonatal intensive-care unit nurses use to make moral decisions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive.
  
  
  METHODS
  Neonatal intensive-care unit of a large teaching hospital in the midwestern United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  Convenience sample of 26 female nurses working in a neonatal intensive-care unit.
  
  
  METHODS
  Audiotaped, semistructured interviews and demographic questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicated that most (65%) of the nurses used the care perspective to make moral decisions. A small number (12%) used the justice perspective, and the remaining nurses (23%) used a combined care and justice perspective.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both the care and justice perspectives were found to be important for understanding how nurses make moral decisions.
authors.affiliation: Concordia University, West Suburban College of Nursing, Erie, Austin, Oak Park, IL 60320.
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Chally
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D026686:Beneficence; D002965:Classification; D003657:Decision Making; D004645:Empathy; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D033161:Government Regulation; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D008875:Middle Aged; D015146:Midwestern United States; D035863:Moral Development; D017283:Neonatal Nursing / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D011788:Quality of Life; D012935:Social Justice