Registered and enrolled nurses : experiences of ethical issues in nursing practice

Research aims:<br />To explore and describe registered and enrolled nurses’ experiences of ethics and human rights issues in nursing practice in the Australian State of Victoria.<br /><br />Method:<br />Descriptive survey of 398 Victorian nurses using the Ethical Issues Scale (EIS) survey questionnaire.<br /><br />Major findings:<br />The most frequent and most disturbing ethical issues reported by the nurses surveyed included: protecting patients’ rights and human dignity, providing care with possible risk to their own health, informed consent, staffing patterns that limited patient access to nursing care, the use of physical/chemical restraints, prolonging the dying process with inappropriate measures, working with unethical/impaired colleagues, caring for patients/families who are misinformed, not considering a patient’s quality of life, poor working conditions.<br /><br />Conclusions:<br />Nurses in Victoria frequently experience disturbing ethical issues in nursing practice that warrant focussed attention by health service managers, educators and policy makers.