Nursing Students Perception of Barriers of Acquiring Professional Ethics: A Qualitative Research

Ethical competency in nursing means performing nursing cares based on bioethics. This type of competency is an important factor in improving the quality of nursing cares. Realizing the obstacles of acquiring ethical qualification by nursing students is one of the basic necessities towards nursing education development. The development of ethical competency is one of the most important strategies which can help in improving nursing students’ capabilities and professional development. This study aimed to identify the barriers to acquiring ethical qualification by nursing students through content analysis of their experiences. A qualitative study was conducted using a content analysis approach. Convenience sampling was employed to select 25 nursing students studying in nursing schools of Tehran public universities، Tehran، Iran. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews، which were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using descriptive content analysis approach according to Graneheim and Lundman method. Eight themes emerged from data analyses including lack of motivation and interest of the students in their profession، insufficient self-awareness، the shortage of expert nursing instructors in ethics science، inadequacy of curriculum، inappropriate ethical teaching methods، problems in evaluation of ethical characteristics، poor interpersonal relationships and constraints in clinical setting. It seems that in developing nursing student’s ethical competency، both contexts and individuals have a role. Therefore، barriers of ethical competency should be sought in various aspects. The present study provides special classification of obstacles that because of growing from a unique study context can be helpful in planning for the development of professional nursing ethics in education and clinical services. Also the findings of this study can provide a base for further researches on this subject.