Simone Roach’s Theory’s Effectiveness in Improving Nursing Students’ Attitudes towards Applied Ethics

Abstract

Introduction: In recent years, cases of corruption have been reported in healthcare institutions. According to their nature, there should be professionals with integrity and values that regulate ethical actions, a process that should begin in their training. Students are observed with unethical attitudes to pass the subjects, who are not interested in acquiring new knowledge.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of applying Simone Roach's theory to improve the attitude towards applied ethics in Nursing students.

Methods: A quantitative pretest and posttest study, with a quasiexperimental design and a control group, was conducted in a Peruvian public university during 2019. The population consisted of 20 fourth-semester Nursing students, randomly divided: 10 for the study group and 10 for the control group. The form on attitudes towards applied ethics was applied to both groups, before and after applying Simone Roach's 7C’s theory to the study group. Absolute frequency distributions and percentages were used; as well as the chi-squared test (x²) with p < 0.05, in order to identify significant statistical differences.

Results: In the pretest, 80 % of the students were observed to have a negative attitude towards applied ethics. After applying Roach's theory, 80 % of the students in the study group presented positive attitudes towards applied ethics, while the same was observed in 30 % of the students in the control group.

Conclusions: The application of Simone Roach's theory was effective in improving attitudes toward applied ethics in Nursing students from a Peruvian public university.