Promoting Nursing Students’ Ethical Development in the Clinical Setting
Ethics professor discusses high-fidelity patient simulation exercise with student. Photo courtesy of Linda Koharchik.
I once spent an hour in an ambulatory surgery PACU when interviewing for work at the place. A few minutes into my visit, one of the patients awoke in tears. The PACU RN proceeded to slap the woman across the face. An open-handed, full-face slap. “No crying here!” she snapped.
I was floored, and reported the incident to the clinic’s medical director. This nurse not only assaulted a patient, she did so in full view of a visitor (me). I suspect that if, instead, I had been an instructor from their medical center with students in tow, she would not have behaved differently. And would I have responded differently if students were present? Would I have confronted the nurse while other patients were watching, to make clear to the students that willfully harming a patient can never be tolerated?
Approaches to ethical instruction.
In “Promoting Nursing Students’ Ethical Development in the Clinical Setting” (free until December 13) in the November issue of AJN, Linda Koharchik and colleagues discuss the ways in which we can further students’ […]