title: Ethical concerns of visiting nurses caring for older people in the community.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  An understanding of the ethical concerns encountered by visiting nurses in the community is needed. Yet, there is a lack of research on this topic.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to explore the ethical concerns that visiting nurses experience when caring for vulnerable older people living in a community.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative thematic analysis was used to explore the nature of the ethical issues experienced by visiting nurses (N = 13) who care for vulnerable older people, over 65 years of age, in a South Korean community.
  
  
  METHODS
  In-depth interviews were conducted with visiting nurses. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to explore the main themes of the phenomenon.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Chung-Ang University Bioethics Committee in South Korea.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four ethical themes emerged from the qualitative data: (a) quantitative performance rather than quality care, (b) clients being invisible, (c) tuning the level of the relationship with clients, and (d) facing the visiting nurses' own limitations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provides a theoretical basis to understand the ethical aspects of visiting nurses' interactions with clients, which should facilitate the development of ethical guidelines for visiting nurses to use in making ethical decisions in their practice.
authors.affiliation: Chung-Ang University, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kwisoon
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Choe
authors.affiliation: Changwon National University, Republic of Korea kskim2011@changwon.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Kisook
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Korean Bible University, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kyoung-Sook
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000941:ethics*; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D056910:Republic of Korea
keywords: Clinical ethics; community health ethics; ethical concerns; nursing ethics; public health nursing