Health and social care workers' professional values: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Professional values create a basis for successful collaboration and person-centred care in integrated care and services. Little is known about how different health and social care workers assess their professional values. RESEARCH AIM: To describe and compare professional value orientation among different health and social care workers in Finland. RESEARCH DESIGN: A quantitative cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: We carried out an online survey of health and social care workers from 8 March to 31 May 2022, using the Finnish version of the Nurses' Professional Values Scale-3. The data were analysed using descriptive and advanced statistics. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Permission was received from all participating organizations and those who completed the survey provided informed consent. RESULTS: A total of 1823 health and social care workers, representing seven professional groups and students, took part. The overall level of professional values among the participants was relatively high. Commitment to providing patients and clients with equal care was more important than engaging with society and professional responsibilities in the work environment. Professional values were strongest among professionals with higher educational degrees and training in professional ethics. The same was true for workers who received organizational support for ethical practice, were satisfied with their work and had shorter work experience. DISCUSSION: Our results showed shared professional values among different health and social care workers and students. These results are meaningful for integrated care and services. At the same time, a clear need for strengthening engagement with society and professional responsibilities for developing work environments were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Health and social care workers and students need training in professional ethics and organizational support for ethical practice and work satisfaction to maintain their professional values at different stages of their career.

Ethical issues identified in nurses´ interprofessional collaboration in clinical practice: a meta-synthesis.

The aim of this study was to synthesize previous knowledge about ethics in nurses' interprofessional collaboration in clinical practice. Although healthcare professionals have common goals and shared values, ethical conflicts still arise during patient care. We carried out a meta-synthesis of peer-reviewed papers published in any language from 2013-2019, using both electronic searches, with the CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus, and SocINDEX databases, and manual searches. We identified 4,763 papers and selected six qualitative papers, and three theoretical papers, based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria and quality appraisal. The studies came from the USA, Canada, Sweden, Australia, Botswana, and the Netherlands. We found that in ethics studies on nurses' interprofessional collaboration in clinical practice the focus has been on factors that affect how patients receive care. These factors were patients' wishes, whether they were told the truth about their condition, and how different professionals recognized and treated their pain. The focus in the papers we reviewed was on the roles of different professionals during the care process, including ethical conflicts with regard to their aims, commitment, and the balance of power among them and other professions. More research is needed to raise the visibility of how nurses and other professionals recognize, and evaluate, their professional and interprofessional ethics.

Professional ethics in nursing: an integrative review.

AIM: To conduct an integrative review and synthesize current primary studies of professional ethics in nursing. BACKGROUND: Professional ethics is a familiar concept in nursing and provides an ethical code for nursing practice. However, little is known about how professional ethics has been defined and studied in nursing science. DESIGN AND DATA SOURCES: Systematic literature searches from 1948-February 2013, using the CINAHL, PubMed and Scopus electronic databases to look at previously published peer-reviewed studies. REVIEW METHOD: A modified version of Cooper's five-stage integrative review was used to review and synthesize current knowledge. RESULTS: Fourteen papers were included in this research. According to our synthesis, professional ethics is described as an intra-professional approach to care ethics and professionals commit to it voluntarily. Professional ethics consist of values, duties, rights and responsibilities, regulated by national legislation and international agreements and detailed in professional codes. Professional ethics is well established in nursing, but is constantly changing due to internal and external factors affecting the profession. CONCLUSION: Despite the obvious importance of professional ethics, it has not been studied much in nursing science. Greater knowledge of professional ethics is needed to understand and support nurses' moral decision-making and to respond to the challenges of current changes in health care and society.