JOURNAL ARTICLE
REVIEW
Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

Ethical competence: An integrative review.

Nursing Ethics 2018 September
BACKGROUND: Ethics, being a fundamental component of nursing practice, must be integrated in the nursing education curriculum. Even though different bodies are promoting ethics and nursing researchers have already carried out work as regards this concept, it still remains difficult to clearly identify the components of this competence.

OBJECTIVE: This integrative review intends to clarify this point in addition to better defining ethical competence in the context of nursing practice.

METHOD: An integrative review was carried out, for the 2009-2014 period, in the CINAHL, MEDLINE, and EMBASE databases and in the journal Nursing Ethics. The keywords nursing ethics or ethical competence were used in order to make sure to widely encompass the concept of "ethical competence" in the case of a university curriculum in nursing. In the end, 89 articles were selected. Ethical consideration: We have respected the ethical requirements required regarding the sources and authorship. There is no conflict of interest in this literature review.

RESULTS: Ethical sensitivity, Ethical knowledge, Ethical reflection, Ethical decision-making, Ethical action, and Ethical behavior are the most frequently used terms with regard to ethical competence in nursing. They were then defined so as to better ascertain the possible components of ethical competence in nursing.

CONCLUSION: Even though ethical competence represents a sine qua non competence in nursing practice, no consensus can be found in literature with respect to its definition. The identification of its components and their relationships resulting from this integrative review adds to the clarification of its definition. It paves the way for other studies that will contribute to a better understanding of its development, especially among nursing students and practicing nurses, as well as the factors that may exert an influence. More adapted education strategies can thus be put forward to support its development.

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app