Professional Ethics in Nursing: An Integrative Review - Article Summary

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Article
Kangasniemi, M., Pakkanen, P. and Korhonen, A., 2015. Professional ethics in nursing: an
integrative review. Journal of advanced nursing, 71(8), pp.1744-1757.
Summary of a research article
Nurses are always confronted with ever increasingly complications in health care.
Professional ethics are the fundamental guidelines that enable a nurse to work efficiently within
their scope of practice. A national code of ethics can provide culturally adapted guidance to the
nurses (Kunyk and Austin 2012).
This article is a review regarding the current primary studies of professional ethics in
nursing. This paper involved 14 papers searched from CINAHL, PubMed and Scopus databases.
The rationale for conducting this literature search has been rightly stated. According to this paper
the professional ethics are linked with the profession of nursing since the early days. Although
there are specific frameworks in nursing but very few of them have practical implications in
nursing. Hence it was necessary to conduct a research regarding the professional ethics in
nursing. The qualitative studies used in this paper used standardized instruments like the Nursing
Professional Value scale (NPVS) (Kunyk and Austin 2012). The grounded theories were used in
the qualitative study. Professional ethics was the core concept of five of the studies. Lachman
(2012) have opined the relation between the professional ethics and the professional
responsibilities. It includes that the professionals provides health care services without causing
harm to the patients. Responsibility and accountability are the one of the important aspect of
professional nursing. Professional nursing influence the clinical competence and results in nurses
observing the rules and the patient rights. They also need continual learning. Professional ethics