The main goal of the article by the authors was to appraise the perception of nurses on the ethical climate in their workplaces. The article was influenced by the fact that due to major and rapid advancement sin pharmacological interventions and therapeutic technologies, the nurse’s environment faces countless moral and ethical dilemmas. The article thus seeks to establish how nurses view such ethical issues including whether such ethical issues have received attention as essential factors n making decisions in the nursing workplace. The article also appraises the nurse’s experience with medical errors and how this affected their intention to leave the profession.
The study did, however, not involve any hypothesis being established. The work was intended for a variety of audiences. First, healthcare institutions would greatly benefit from the findings since it documents how nurses perceive an organization’s ethical climate. Such a perception was established, and it can influence a nurse’s performance and ultimately patient care. According to the findings, the nurses observed a positive ethical climate as established by the Hospital Ethical Climate Survey. The article also helps nurse leaders in health care setups to come up with better models of handling medical errors. This is because 19% of the nurses reported having made at least one medical error and 25% having considered leaving the profession. With effective methods of addressing medical errors as Lewis, Baernholdt and Hamric, (2013) observes, potential nurses exit can be averted. This is because a global nurses shortage crisis is still persistent (Abhicharttibutra, et al., 2016).
Recall bias is the major source of bias in the research’s findings. This is because questionnaires were used to establish the research findings hence nurses were forced to recall instances of appraised issues. The major limitation also lied in the fact that data for the 33 public hospitals used in the study was extrapolated as indicative of the situation in Korean Public Hospitals. The generalization may not thus be a true representation of only 83% of public hospitals in Korea took part in the study. Private hospitals were also exempt from the study, further limiting the findings.
Data was mainly collected with the help of questionnaires that were sealed and mailed to the public healthcare planning department of the hospitals that took part in the study.
These findings are in tandem with my current course objective since it sheds more light on the ethical issues facing nurses. Additionally, it also aligns with the current course content on medical errors in the nursing profession and its effects. From the article, I learn that a positive perception of the ethical environment hugely affects performance and ultimately the level of patient care. Furthermore, medical errors are bound to happen and must not be used to victimize nurses but rather improve delivery of service.
References
Abhicharttibutra, K., Kunaviktikul, W., Turale, S., Wichaikhum, O. A., & Srisuphan, W. (2016). Analysis of a government policy to address nursing shortage and nursing education quality. International nursing review.
Hwang, J. I., & Park, H. A. (2014). Nurses’ perception of ethical climate, medical error experience and intent-to-leave. Nursing ethics, 21(1), 28-42.
Lewis, E. J., Baernholdt, M., & Hamric, A. B. (2013). Nurses' experience of medical errors: an integrative literature review. Journal of nursing care quality, 28(2), 153-161.
