title: Nurses' ethical conflicts in performance of utilization reviews.
abstract: This article describes the ethical conflicts that a sample of US nurse utilization reviewers faced in their work, and also each nurse's self-reported ethical orientation that was used to resolve the dilemmas. Data were collected from a sample of 97 registered nurses who were working at least 20 hours per week as utilization reviewers. Respondents were recruited from three managed care organizations that conduct utilization reviews in a large midwestern city. A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect demographic data and to ask closed-response, short-answer and open-ended questions. Ethical conflicts reported by nurses were similar across utilization review settings and many were justice orientated. Self-reported ethical orientations were similar across organizations, with beneficence dominating. Implications of these findings are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202, USA. sue.ellen.bell@wayne.edu
authors.forename: Sue Ellen
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Bell
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000941:ethics; D008875:Middle Aged; D015146:Midwestern United States; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000941:ethics* / Q000523:psychology*; D010344:Patient Advocacy / Q000941:ethics / Q000523:psychology; D028662:Principle-Based Ethics; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014600:Utilization Review / Q000941:ethics*