COMPARISON OF STUDENT NURSES, NURSES AND NON-NURSES WITH REGARD TO THEIR MORAL JUDGMENTS ON NURSING DILEMMAS (ETHICS)

Moral judgment scores of student nurses, nurses, and non-nurses were compared on various nursing dilemmas. It was hypothesized that there were no differences in the moral judgment scores of the three groups and that the level of nursing education, the length of clinical nursing experience, and the subject's religious preference would not affect the moral judgment scores. The total sample number of 195 completed the six nursing dilemmas of Crisham's Nursing Dilemmas Test. This test represents various moral issues specifically applied to clinical areas of nursing. Scoring of the test was based on Kohlberg's levels of moral reasoning. Statistical analyses included three one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAS) with post-hoc Duncan's multiple range test. Intensive care unit nurses, and associate degree nurses and diploma or associated degree nurses with extra college credits, scored significantly more toward principled thinking. Significant relationships were found between length of experience and a prior philosophy course to subjects' principled thinking scores. Recommendations as a result of this study included the need for nursing ethics courses in nursing curricula, in continuing education programs, as well as increasing efforts toward retention of mature experienced nurses as role models. Future research is recommended to assess the effects of nursing ethics courses on subjects' levels of moral reasoning and behavior in the work setting.