A COMPARATIVE RESEARCH STUDY TO ASSESS THE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS AND PATIENT CARE ISSUES AMONG NURSES OF CRITICAL CARE UNITS AND NURSES OF GENERAL WARDS OF IGMCH, SHIMLA

Author Name: 1. Ms. Anjali Bhardwaj 2. Ms. Pooja Sood 3. Dr. Aditya Sharma

Volume/Issue: 02/09

Country: India

DOI NO.: 08.2020-25662434 DOI Link: https://www.doi-ds.org/doilink/03.2022-17799472/UIJIR

Affiliation:

1. Assistant Professor, Maa Hateshwari College of Nursing, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India
2. Nursing Tutor, Sister Nivedita Govt Nursing College, IGMCH, Himachal Pradesh, India
3. Lecturer, Sister Nivedita Govt Nursing College, IGMCH, Himachal Pradesh, India

ABSTRACT

Nursing practice is endowed by many ethical and legal aspects because nurses are accountable for their professional judgments and action. Earlier the professional nursing practice, nurses’ work had no recognition and the profession had no separate identity. But over the time, the scope of nursing practice has expanded, technologies have advanced, and nurses are going for higher levels of education. With these changes, there was a change in the manner in which the standard of care given by nurses was viewed, and with expanded body of knowledge and expertise; this profession got an international identity. With the growth of this profession, responsibilities of nurses have also increased not just in the usage of advanced technology but also in the manner in which nursing care is delivered.1 In above perspective, we conducted a comparative research study regarding awareness of laws and ethics between nurses of critical care units and nurses of general wards to assess which section of nurses requires to work on the enhancement of their knowledge about laws and ethics. Aim of the study is to compare the level of knowledge about ethical implications and patient care issues between nurses of critical care units and nurses of general ward. The tool (self-administered structured questionnaire) was developed and utilized for data collection. Data analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential methods on SPSS. The study findings showed that knowledge of nurses in critical care wards (group A) about ethical implications and patient care issues was -23(76%) had average knowledge, 2(6.7%) had good knowledge whereas 5 (16.7%) had below average knowledge. Whereas knowledge of nurses of general wards (group B) was- no subject i.e., 0(0%) had good knowledge, 26(86.7) had average knowledge and 4(13.3%) had below average knowledge. Group A mean knowledge score was 13.03 with standard deviation of 3.409 whereas group B mean score was 12.67 with standard deviation of 3.527. Nurses are expected to provide a care which is ethically and legally safer thus it is imperative to enhance knowledge of nurses regarding ethical implications and patient care issues.

Key words: Nurse, IGMCH