Ethical reasoning in mixed nurse-physician groups.
OBJECTIVE
To study the ethical reasoning of nurses and physicians, and to assess whether or not modified focus groups are a valuable tool for this purpose.


METHODS
Discussion of cases in modified focus groups, each consisting of three physicians and three nurses. The discussion was taped and analysed by content analysis.


METHODS
Five departments of internal medicine at Danish hospitals.


METHODS
Seven discussion groups.


METHODS
Ethical content of statements, style of statements, time used by each participant.


RESULTS
Danish physicians and nurses do not differ in the kind of ethical reasoning they use, but physicians use more of the discussion time than nurses, they use a more assertive style of argumentation, and the solutions chosen are usually first put forward by physicians.


CONCLUSIONS
The results and informal comparisons with similar data from long qualitative interviews indicate that groups of this kind are a useful tool for gathering data on ethical reasoning.
Holm
S
S
Department of Medical Philosophy and Clinical Theory, University of Copenhagen
Gjersøe
P
P
Grode
G
G
Hartling
O
O
Ibsen
K E
KE
Marcussen
H
H
D000368:Aged; D003142:Communication; D036262:Empirical Research; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D028663:Ethical Theory; D026690:Ethics, Clinical; D004995:Ethics, Professional; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D035863:Moral Development; D009726:Nurses; D019555:Physician-Nurse Relations; D010820:Physicians; D040841:Resource Allocation; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D035501:Uncertainty