Professionalism, Ethics, and Nursing Research
Core concepts
Professionalism includes accountability, integrity, competence, and scope of practice. Ethics covers autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and confidentiality. Research requires informed consent, ethics review, research designs, sampling, validity and reliability, and evidence-based practice (ask, acquire, appraise, apply, assess). Know levels of evidence.
Traps in questions
- Confusing beneficence (do good) with non-maleficence (do no harm).
- Ignoring informed consent or vulnerable populations.
- Overlooking conflict of interest.
- Confusing validity (accuracy) with reliability (consistency).
- Ranking expert opinion above systematic reviews.
Worked example / rule of thumb
A researcher wants to enroll pregnant women in a trial. Priority: ethics review, informed consent, and protection of vulnerable participants. Rule of thumb: for ethics questions, respect autonomy and protect the vulnerable; for evidence questions, systematic reviews and RCTs rank highest.
Key teaching points
Ethics: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice. Research requires consent and review. Evidence hierarchy guides practice.