Department of Nursing Science

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Browsing Department of Nursing Science by Advisor "Amakali, Kristofina"

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    Knowledge and application of nursing ethical principles by nurses at Onandjokwe Intermediate Hospital, Oshikoto region, Namibia
    (University of Namibia, 2024) Niikondo, Ottilie Ndafimana; Amakali, Kristofina
    The role of nurses in health care settings has become more challenging and demanding in contemporary times, compounded by shortage of resources for quality service delivery. Nurses often find themselves in situations that demand knowledge and competency in the application of ethical principles to provide professional care to clients. The objectives of this study were therefore to assess and describe the knowledge and application of ethical principles of respect for a person, non maleficence, beneficence and justice by nurses in providing care to patients and clients and to determine the association between sociodemographic variables of the respondents and the knowledge and application of these principles. Two hundred and fifteen nurses consisting of 102 Registered and 113 Enrolled Nurses working at Onandjokwe hospital participated in a quantitative, descriptive, analytical and cross-sectional study. Majority (90%) of the respondents reported being trained on ethics during their basic nursing training, 52% trained over 5 years ago, while about 10% received training on ethics during induction on employment and as in-service training. The study revealed poor knowledge of ethical principle of respect for a person or autonomy by nurses regarding all variables assessed, except for the variable on the provision of all information needed for the patient to make informed decision which scored 70.2%. The average knowledge of ethical principle of respect for person by the respondents in the current study is 42.0%. Correspondingly, the findings indicate poor application of ethical principle of respect for person by the respondents with an average of 27.9%. The average knowledge of ethical principle of non-maleficence among the respondents was low at (45.4%) aside that registered nurses demonstrated higher level of ii knowledge of the ethical principle of non-maleficence than enrolled nurses/midwives. Longer working experience was also associated with higher knowledge of the ethical principle of non-maleficence as indicated by a p-value of 0.01(p=0.01). The average application of non-maleficence by the respondents was 54.8%. Although the registered nurses/midwives appeared more knowledgeable than enrolled nurses/midwives on the ethical principle of beneficence, the study findings revealed poor knowledge (48.8%) and poor application (38.8%) of ethical principle of beneficence among the study respondents. The average knowledge of ethical principle of justice among the respondents was poor (40.5%), supported its poor applications (average 43.4%) among the respondents, except for the variable about nurses’ personal attitudes which should not influence patients’ care for which the respondents scored 60%. In conclusion, the findings revealed poor knowledge of and poor application of ethics in practices by nurse respondents at the study site. The researcher therefore recommended regular refresher training of nurses on ethical principles related to patient care, and strong leadership and support, by health care management, including regular supervision and mentoring of nurses to provide ethically sound care to patients and clients. The role of leadership and mentoring in enhancing ethical-based care are areas for further studies on the subject