Explaining the Lived Experience of Nursing Students of Ethical Courage in Clinical Environments

Moral courage is considered as a part of the requirements of the nursing profession, and its prerequisite is the training and strengthening of this characteristic in the student period. Therefore, the present study aims to discover the experiences of nursing students from Moral courage was practiced in clinical settings.

The present study was conducted using hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Sampling was done utilizing targeted sampling method among the 7th and 8th semester nursing students who had completed their theoretical courses. Data collection continued using semi-structured interviews until data saturation, and finally 10 people participated in this study, and data analysis was done based on Dickelmann approach.

The findings of the present study indicated that there were 2 main themes including moral conscience (decisiveness in correcting actions and moral governance) and ethical strategy development (personal commitment and moral development).

The findings of this research showed that students with moral courage have moral conscience, including determination to correct actions and moral governance, and this characteristic enhances professional ethics. Considering that the main mission of nursing education is to train capable and competent nurses who have the necessary knowledge and skills to provide quality nursing care, maintain and improve the health of society, educational systems can use the results of this study to evaluate their educational programs and pay and fix their defects.