ArticleNursing ethics2022
Unprofessional conduct by nurses: A document analysis of disciplinary decisions.
Article in Nursing ethics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Nurses' unprofessional behavior on patient care-A scoping review.Nursing ethics · 2026Article
- From silence to dismissal; nursing managers' strategies in dealing with nurses' professional misconduct: a qualitative study.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- Laclau and Mouffe's Discourse Theory: Professionalism as an Empty Signifier for Nursing.Nursing philosophy : an international journal for healthcare professionals · 2025Article
- A Professional Nurse Competence Scale (PNCS): Development and psychometric testing.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Nurses' understanding of quality documentation: A qualitative study in a Mental Health Institution.Curationis · 2025Article
- Student midwives' experiences of Ubuntu principles in midwifery care at Vhembe District.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2025Article
- Observational
- Outcomes of professional misconduct by nurses: a qualitative study.BMC nursing · 2024Article
- Disciplinary processes for nurses, from organizational supervision to outcomes: A document analysis of a regulatory authority's decisions.Journal of nursing management · 2022Article
- Nurse Influencers: The Digital Performance of Care, Professional Identity, and the Commodification of Empathy-An Integrative Narrative Review.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingReview
- Developing a Feasible and Credible Method for Analyzing Healthcare Documents as Written Data.Global qualitative nursing researchArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA small minority of nurses are investigated when they fail to meet the required professional standards. Unprofessional conduct does not just affect the nurse but also patients, colleagues and managers. However, it has not been clearly defined.
objectiveThe objective was to identify unprofessional conduct by registered nurses by examining disciplinary decisions by a national regulator.
designA retrospective document analysis. DATA AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: Disciplinary decisions delivered to 204 registered nurses by the Finnish national regulatory authority from 2007 to 2016. The data were analysed with quantitative statistics. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION: The study received permission from the Finnish National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health and used confidential documents that were supplied on the basis of complete anonymity and confidentiality.
findingsThe mean age of the registered nurses who were disciplined was 44 years and 81% were female. Two-thirds had worked for their employer for 5 years or less, 53% had two or more employers and 18% had a criminal history. All the decisions included a primary reason for why the nurses were investigated, but there were also 479 coexisting reasons. In most cases, unprofessional conduct was connected to substance abuse (96%). In addition, stealing of medicine, a decreased ability to work and neglect of nursing guidelines were reported. DISCUSSION: We found that the nurses were investigated for unprofessional conduct for complex combinations of primary and coexisting reasons. Our study highlighted that more attention needs to be paid to the key markers for unprofessional conduct.
conclusionUnprofessional conduct is a complex phenomenon that is connected to nurses' individual and working backgrounds and has an impact on their work performance. More research is needed to identify how nursing communities can detect, manage and limit the serious effects and consequences of unprofessional conduct.
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