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Abstract
Background
Confidentiality, informed consent and distributive justice are some of the complicated ethical dilemmas that nursing interns encounter in their clinical practice. These problems underscore the necessity to measure and enhance the ethical sensitivity, which is a key to the moral judgment and the ethical decision-making. However,
Minimal studies have been conducted on this aspect among the Pakistani nursing interns. Thus, this paper sought to determine the ethical sensitivity of the nursing interns in tertiary care hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Methods
On a sample of 163 nursing interns in four tertiary care hospitals, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Polyclinic Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and Rawal General and Dental Hospital, a descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out. The tool of data collection was a structured and validated questionnaire based on the Ethical.
Questionnaire framework Sensitivity Questionnaire. The tool addressed three key areas, which include respect to individuals, distributive justice, and patient confidentiality. The statistical analysis was performed to find out the mean domain scores and the main factors which influence them.
Results
The results showed that nursing interns were ethically sensitive in keeping patient confidentiality and safety, which indicates the knowledge of professional boundaries and care ethics. Nonetheless, there was moderation in sensitivity as to patient autonomy and equitable allocation of healthcare resources.
The issues that affected the perception of ethics were hierarchical working culture, low empowerment, and lack of ethics education. These findings highlight a partial yet encouraging advance in the formation of ethical sensitiveness among interns in a formatted clinical condition.
Conclusions
The research concludes that, as the nursing interns have an admirable level of understanding of both confidentiality and safety, there is still the need to develop their ethical awareness in regards to autonomy and distributive justice. Ethics education, reflective supervision, and ongoing moral discourse in clinical settings have a considerable potential to improve the ethical sensitivity and competence of interns.