The Ethics of Care in the Undergraduate Nursing Trajectory

Abstract

Introduction: Nursing students acquire the ability to care for themselves and the sick person, as part of their ethical training. However, sometimes during the development of theoretical and practical classes, nursing procedures are prioritized more than the ethics of care.

Objective: To describe the ethics of care in the nursing university course.

Methods: Descriptive qualitative research, conducted at the Universidad Católica Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo, Peru, between September and October 2020. The population was 32 students of the X Cycle of the School of Nursing enrolled in the 2020-II academic cycle, of which 14 nursing students participated, since the information was saturated with them. The data were collected by semi-structured in-depth online interview in a synchronous manner, with prior informed consent. The data were processed using the content analysis technique.

Results: Four categories emerged: a) Theoretical basis accompanied by cases, videos and code of ethics, b) The practice of ethics of care in the student-patient-family interaction, c) Responsibility in admitting errors, privacy and informed consent of the patient, d) Corrections in the ethics of care in the theoretical and practical context.

Conclusions: Nursing students denoted subjects with contents on ethics and of methodologies used in classes to integrate and apply them in hospital practices. However, they requested greater teaching assistance to avoid making mistakes, and asked to include ethics of care in primary health care.