ArticleBMC medical ethics2021
Nurses' ethical decision-making during end of life care in South Korea: a cross-sectional descriptive survey.
Article in BMC medical ethics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Professional identity and moral agency in palliative care: A review.Nursing ethics · 2026Review
- Cross-cultural validation of the Chinese version of the nurses' ethical decision-making around end-of-life care scale: a cross-sectional study.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- Intensive care nurses' perceptions of good death and end-of-life care attitudes and behaviors: a descriptive and correlational quantitative study.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- The effect of nurses' professional quality of life on attitudes toward organ donation: a structural equation modeling approach.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- The level of moral sensitivity among nurses: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Development and psychometric properties of the nursing ethical decision-making ability scale.BMC medical ethics · 2025Article
- Moral distress, attitude toward death, and palliative care core competencies among ICU nurses: a cross-sectional study.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- The Relationships Between Ethical Sensitivity, Ethical Decision-Making Ability, and Ethical Conflict Among ICU Nurses: A Structural Equation Model.Journal of nursing management · 2025Article
- Navigating end-of-life decision-making in nursing: a systematic review of ethical challenges and palliative care practices.BMC nursing · 2024Article
- Translation and psychometric testing of the Persian Version of nurses' ethical decision-making in End-of-Life Care Scale.BMC nursing · 2024Article
- Care of patients undergoing withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments: an ICU nurse perspective.BMC nursing · 2024Article
- Moral sensitivity as a personal and work attribute of emergency care nurses: a cross-sectional study.Revista latino-americana de enfermagem · 2024Article
- A study on different types of moral courage and coping styles of clinical nurses: based on potential profile analysis.BMC nursing · 2023Article
- Psychometrics assessment of ethical decision-making around end-of-life care scale for adolescents in the final stage of life.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Article
- Relationships between ethical decision-making and professional behavior in Iranian nursing students.Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough nurses are crucial to ensure patients' peaceful death in hospitals, many nurses experience various ethical conflicts during end-of-life care. Therefore, research on nurses' entire ethical decision-making process is required to improve nurses' ethical decision-making in end-of-life care. This study aimed to identify Korean nurses' ethical decision-making process based on their moral sensitivity to end-of-life patients.
methodsIn total, 171 nurses caring for terminal patients responded to the survey questionnaire. To measure the participants' moral sensitivity and ethical decision-making process, we used the Korean version of the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire and Nurses' Ethical Decision-Making around End of Life Care Scale. Finally, multiple linear regression analysis was used to investigate the effect of moral sensitivity on nurses' ethical decision-making.
resultsThe mean of moral sensitivity was 4.8 ± 0.5 (out of 7), and that of ethical decision-making was 4.6 ± 0.5 (out of 6). Among the sub-dimensions of ethical decision-making, the highest score was in perceived professional accountability (5.2 ± 0.5), and the lowest in moral reasoning and moral agency (3.9 ± 0.6); the score of moral practice was 4.4 ± 0.7. In the multiple linear regression model, moral sensitivity (β = 0.852, p < .001), clinical department (β = - 7.018, p = .035), ethics education (β = 20.450, p < .001), job satisfaction (β = 5.273, p < .001), and ethical conflict (β = - 2.260, p = 0.031) were influential ethical decision-making factors.
conclusionsThis study revealed a gap between nurses' thoughts and practices through the ethical decision-making process. They failed to lead their thought to moral practice. It also implies that moral sensitivity could positively affect nurses' ethical decision-making. To make nurses morally sensitive, exposing them to various clinical cases would be helpful. Additionally, ethics education and clinical ethics supporting services are valuable for improving nurses' ethical decision-making. If nurses improved their ethical decision-making regarding end-of-life care, their patients could experience a better quality of death.
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