My Dissertation: The beginning of my interest in Ethics in Nursing

When I was a junior faculty member, I often wondered what caused some nursing students to act ethically, while others participated in breaches in integrity.  Breaches in integrity, in nursing students, or any students for that matter, can include, for example, cheating on exams, or cheating on assignments by plagiarizing their work. Furthermore, I worried that these breeches in integrity during schooling would lead to breaches in their nursing practice once they graduated and began their professional careers. 

My dissertation, The Experience of Accelerated Nursing Program Graduates Utilizing Ethics in Their Nursing Practice, addresses these concerns. 

McLaughlin, M. A. S. (2016). The experience of accelerated nursing program graduates utilizing ethics in their nursing practice (Publication No. 10195870) [Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.  

Abstract: 

This study, based on hermeneutic phenomenology, asked: What is the experience of accelerated nursing program graduates utilizing ethics in their nursing practice? Using van Manen’s phenomenological method, 10 accelerated nursing program graduates were interviewed to illuminate their lived experience of utilizing ethics in their nursing practice. Through the process of reading and rereading transcripts five essential themes emerged: the nurse serving as a patient advocate, the nurse promoting a dignified death for a patient, the nurse fostering the humane side to patient care, the nurse encouraging virtuous integrity, and the nurse actualizing authentic leadership.

The integrative textual statement synthesized from the themes was: The experience of utilizing ethics in practice among accelerated nursing graduates is one of demonstrating virtuous integrity by respecting the humane side of patient care, serving as the patient’s advocate, and when called upon, promoting a dignified death for a patient.  Nurses accomplish this by leading through authenticity.

Implications for education included ethics education on a formal and an informal basis as well as the incorporation of the five essential themes into the educational process.  This study supported the tenets of authenticity as a framework for the education and the use of ethics in both nursing programs and practice areas. 

Model Developed Out of My Research:

I encourage readers of my blog to take the time to review my study and its findings. It looks at the historical evolution of ethics in nursing.  It includes interviews of graduates of accelerated nursing programs. The findings are organized into 5 major themes. These themes lent itself to the creation of my ethics model, The Siciliano-McLaughlin Model of Ethics. The cental framework is authenticity. 

As always, thank you for visiting my blog. I am open to your thoughts on this topic.