Ethical Awareness and Competence

Nurses encounter ethical dilemmas throughout their nursing practice which may develop during complex daily interactions involving physicians, families, nurses, healthcare professionals, and patients. Ethical challenges call for an expanded knowledge base to ensure nursing competence in handling challenges. The purpose of this project is to explore, analyze, and synthesize the literature to understand the importance of nursing ethics and enhance ethical knowledge and awareness for nurses. The project was conducted among staff nurses at a large healthcare facility in Houston, TX. Nurses received ethics education on various units. The tools for data collection include pre- and post-surveys/test. Although data is still being collected, post-survey data revealed an increase in ethical knowledge. The nursing profession can benefit from a curriculum that integrates ethics into the nursing practice, as well as continuous training and education on ethics for staff nurses.