A Difference of Awareness to the Ethical Issues by Nursing License in Japan

Nakao, N. Hisako

Monday, July 11, 2011

N. Hisako Nakao, PhD, MEcon, RN¹
F. Fujimura Takae, PhD, ML, RN, PHN, MW²
N. Nagakawa Tomie, PhD, RN, MW³
C. Chishaki Akiko, MD¹
N. Nakao Fujiko, MSN, BL, RN¹
M. Miyazono Mami, MSN, RN¹
K. Kinoshita Yumiko, MA, RN¹
K. Kanaoka Maki, MSN, BN, RN¹
T. Tomioka Akiko, MSN, BN, RN¹
K. Kawamoto Rieko, PhD, MA, RN¹
(1)Nursing Course, Department of Health sciences, School of medicine, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
(2)Faculty of Nursing and Nutrition, Yamaguchi Prefectural University, Yamaguchi, Japan
(3)Faculty of Humanities & Health Sciences, Ube Frontier University, Ube, Japan

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to know the difference of awareness to the ethical issues by nursing license.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to know the awareness of nurses' ethical issues in Japan.

Recently, various ethical issues have arised in the field of medical practice. So, people expect for nurses much better caring which has respect for social norms than before. In Japan, after basic nursing education and specialized nursing education, students can get license to become a public health nurse: PHN, a midwife: MW, and a nurse: RN. They work at health centers, hospitals and etc depending on their license. We thought their ethical issues are different by their licenses and workplaces. Therefore, we examined the different awareness to the ethical issues by nursing licenses.

We investigated awareness and response to ethical issues by anonymous self-administered questionnaires. In terms of awareness and response to ethical issues, we used Nursing Ethical Issues Awareness by Nursing Professionals and asked questions about “worrying” and “facing” issues in relation to 17 nursing situations that raise ethical questions in the daily medical services.

The result showed that MW and RN were either worried about or were faced with ethical issues high rate, and PHN were low. In terms of situations, the items cluster of “worry,” and “a dilemma of the conflict” were the highest rate in MW and RN, but in PHN were “worry” “intervention to abuse”. In terms of situations, the items cluster of “faced” and “a cooperation with doctor” were the high rate in MW and RN, but in PHN were “beyond one’s ability”. PHN have the fewest opportunity for discussing ethical issues. For this reason, we found “patient’s right” and “one’s role in team care dilemma” were associated with their specialty. On the other hand, PHN faced with “one’s ability and one’s responsibility dilemma” when they had to intervene in local resident.

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