Ethical Decision Making Levels of Nursing Students

Objective: The present study was conducted to determine nursing students’ levels of ethical decision-making.

Methods: The sample of the descriptive study consisted of 240 nursing students. The data were collected using the Student Information Form and “Nursing Dilemma Test”.

Results: It was found that Principled Thinking (PT) mean score (48.38±7.97) of nursing students was above average while their Practical Consideration (PC) mean score (17.87±4.13) was close to average. It was also determined that the nursing students participated in the study were not familiar (17.75±2.77) with the dilemmas included in the Nursing Ethical Dilemma Test.

Conclusion: The students paid attention to consider ethical principles when making decisions about ethical dilemmas; however, they are also affected by environmental factors as well. Sex and class level were found to be influential in the process of ethical decision making.