Question

Conducting research with strong ethical principles is a critical component of being an effective nurse researcher. In the research simulation activity, which character(s) did you play? What did you learn about ethical principles in research? Are ethics in research clear cut, or do you think there are some gray areas? cite one reference

Answer 1

Nurses need to participate in research where they have to cope with various systems, which is in conflict with the values of subjects, communities, and societies and create tensions and dilemmas in nursing. Using the Medline and the Nursing data base, the most important ethical issues which appear will be addressed. The nature of nursing, and the advocacy role of nurses, will attempt to highlight the possible conflicts that nurses have to deal with, when undertaking or participating in research. The major ethical issues in conducting research are, informed consent, beneficence, that do not harm, respect for anonymity and confidentiality and respect for privacy. Both the nature of nursing which focuses on caring, preventing harm and protecting dignity and the advocates role of nurses which calls for defending the rights, are sometimes incongruent with the ethics in research. Ethical issues, conflicting values, and ambiguity in decision making, are emerging from literature review on nursing research. Because of lack of clarity in ethical standards, nurses must develop an awareness of these issues and an effective framework to deal with problems involving human rights.

Ethical behavior is also critical for collaborative work because it encourages an environment of trust, accountability, and mutual respect among researchers. This is especially important when considering issues related to data sharing, guidelines, confidentiality, and many other issues.

It provides a basis for understanding, it means to be a morally decent human being. While ethical principles are the fundamentals of transformational and servant leadership, a need for ethics could be identified in all leadership theories. For example, a charismatic leader can be highly destructive without a commitment to ethics. Not every situation will be black or white, with a clear cut ethical answer, but it is the grey areas, that will truly test the strength of our morality.

There are various applications of ethics, the basic framework has stages of moral development. The stages are divided among levels of morality, preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. The preconventional level are concerned with avoiding punishment, and receiving rewards. Conventional wisdom, reflects a type of reasoning that responds to societal expectations. The highest level of moral reasoning is regarded as postconventional morality. At this level they follow a moral conscience. They are interested in justice, social contracts, individual rights, and universal principles.

To site an example for this principles of ethical view will often fail leaders, as they begin working in different cultures. A manager at a large specialty products company in China caught an employee stealing, she followed the company’s practice and turned the employee over to the provincial authorities, who executed him. That is correct, he was killed for stealing. It might suggest that China implements such harsh consequences to encourage a preconventional level of morality. This would suggest that even those, with the most basic moral reasoning, would be motivated to follow the law and avoid such harsh punishments. However, it is likely that an American manager would not see death as a fitting punishment for theft. This presents a cultural dilemma.

The approach would point to the manager’s obligation to tell the truth, despite any severe consequences or outcomes. If viewed from the teleological theory of ethical egoism, it would have been natural for the manger act in self interest, with the hope of avoiding any personal consequences. Both approaches would have led the leader to report the man’s crime.