Abstract

Background: Nurses are expected to make and implement autonomous decisions to provide patients with excellent quality nursing while practicing complex, high-level care. However, studies have shown that nursing practice based on autonomous decision-making is difficult, and a gap exists between decision-making and implementation. Research question/aim/objectives: This study aims to clarify trends among nursing professionals who recognize they are practicing ethical behavior in their nursing practice. Research design/Participants and research context: We surveyed the basic attributes of and used the Ode’s Ethical Behavior Scale for Nurses with 3467 nursing professionals working at 34 hospitals in suburban cities of Japan and investigated the relationships among these factors. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the appropriate research ethics committee. The Ethical Behavior Scale for Nurses was used with the authors’ permission. Findings/results: Significant differences were found in the mean “ethical behavior” scores between nurses and licensed practical nurses and midwives and licensed practical nurses. Mean scores for the “justice” subscale differed significantly between the low experience group and mid-level experience group and between the high experience group and mid-level experience group. Significant differences were also found in the mean scores between those with ethics education experience and those without, those with ethics training experience and those without, and those with ethics conference experience and those without. Discussion: Midwives and nurses had higher ethical behaviors than licensed practical nurses. Nursing professionals with low and high experience had higher justice scores than those with mid-level experience. Finally, nursing professionals with ethics education, training, or conference experience had higher ethical behavior than those without such experience. Conclusion: Nursing professionals who recognize they are practicing ethical behavior tend to be midwives or nurses with low or high levels of experience who attended ethics education, training, or conferences.