The Necessity of Ethical Education for Clinical Nurses in Japan

In complex and diversified clinical settings, social needs for patients' rights are increasingly demanded. Although clinical nurses have not received systematic ethics education, they will face ethical problems on a daily basis. To solve these problems, we are required to offer ethics education to clinical nurses. We have conducted a seminar on ethics for clinical nurses at Tottori University Hospital. The purpose of this study is to clarify the current status of nursing ethics. Sixty-six clinical nurses attended this seminar from Tottori University Hospital. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 61 nurses. The following data were found: i) 56% had experience with ethical problems, ii) 49% have criteria for ethical judgment, iii) 83% answered that their understanding of ethics has deepened through this seminar and iv) almost all nurses who attended this seminar realized that nurses play an important role in advocating patients' self determination. Based on the results, we concluded that a seminar on nursing ethics provides opportunities for nurses to review his or her practice, to look back on their own nursing and to think about what ethical problems are. These findings also indicated the importance of continuing education on this problem for clinical nurses.