Factors that impact on emergency nurses' ethical decision-making ability.
Reliance on moral principles and professional codes has given nurses direction for ethical decision-making. However, rational models do not capture the emotion and reality of human choice. Intuitive response must be considered.
Supporting intuition as an important ethical decision-making tool for nurses, the aim of this study was to determine relationships between intuition, years of worked nursing experience, and perceived ethical decision-making ability. A secondary aim explored the relationships between rational thought to years of worked nursing experience and perceived ethical decision-making ability.
A non-experimental, correlational research design was used. The Rational Experiential Inventory measured intuition and rational thought. The Clinical Decision Making in Nursing Scale measured perceived ethical decision-making ability. Pearson's r was the statistical method used to analyze three primary and two secondary research questions.
A sample of 182 emergency nurses was recruited electronically through the Emergency Nurses Association. Participants were self-selected.
Approval to conduct this study was obtained by the Adelphi University Institutional Review Board.
A relationship between intuition and perceived ethical decision-making ability ( r = .252, p = .001) was a significant finding in this study.
This study is one of the first of this nature to make a connection between intuition and nurses' ethical decision-making ability.
This investigation contributes to a broader understanding of the different thought processes used by emergency nurses to make ethical decisions.
Adelphi University, USA.
Barbara
B
Alba
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics*; D016529:Emergency Nursing / Q000941:ethics*; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019545:Intuition; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
Emergency nurse; ethical decision-making; ethics; experiential thought; intuition; rational thought