Knowledge and application of nursing ethical principles by nurses at Onandjokwe Intermediate Hospital, Oshikoto region, Namibia
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Date
2024
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Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
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
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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
Description
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master’s in Nursing Science
Keywords
Knowledge, Application, Ethical principles, Autonomy, Non maleficence, Beneficence, Justice, Nurse, University of Namibia