Shigeko (Seiko) Izumi, PhD, RN1, Emiko Konishi, PhD2, Samantha Pang, PhD3, Shu-Yueh Chen, RN, PhD4, Young-Rhan Um, RN, PhD5, Hsueh-Chin Chou, RN, MSN6, Sun Suk Han, RN, PhD7, Maki Tanaka, RN, MSN8, Hsiao-Ying Tsai, RN, PhD9, Hai-feng Wang, RN, MSN10, Xiao-ling Xue, RN, BS10, and Michiko Yahiro, RN, MSN3. (1) School of Nursing, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA, (2) School of Nursing, Oita University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Oita, Japan, (3) School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China, (4) Department of Nursing, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, (5) Department of Nursing, Soonchunhyang University, Chungnam, South Korea, (6) Department of Nursing, Central Taiwan University of Sciences and Technology, Taichung City, Taiwan, (7) Department of Nursing, The Catholic University, Seoul, South Korea, (8) Department of Nursing, Nagano College of Nursing, Komagane, Japan, (9) Department of Medicine, Nara Prefectural Medical University, Kashihara, Japan, (10) School of Nursing, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
A cross-cultural collaborative study was conducted in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. The aims of the study were twofold: to understand the “good nurse” as an ethical ideal, from patients’ viewpoints; and to enrich our universal and cultural understanding of nursing ethics by comparing findings within and across the four regions. The Japanese participants of the study identified good nurses as those who could develop human relationships with patients and who had professional comportment. The nurses with these characteristics were deemed good because they relieved patients’ sense of vulnerability. Although the way in which these characteristics were expressed or appeared varied, human relationships, professional comportment, and relief from vulnerability were characteristics shared by good nurses across all regions. Findings from this study address three issues we must consider to promote good work in nursing: (1) we must include patients’ perspectives when we examine the value of nursing. Evaluating the value of nursing without reflecting patients’ voices is inadequate. Nursing research must convey patients’ voices in order to persuade administrators that supporting quality work in nursing is essential. (2) More endeavors for international, cross-cultural inquiries are needed to identify the essential values of nursing to promote collaboration. This will help to better understand cultural diversity in nursing and prepare nurses to be more culturally sensitive. (3) The study showed the importance of articulating the value of nursing so that nurses can share, communicate, and disseminate this information to others more appropriately.