An Integrated Literature Review of Nursing Ethics Research for Nursing Students in Korea (2011-2020)

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the current state, and future directions, of research on nursing ethics for nursing students in Korea. The study analyzed and evaluated original research articles that explore nursing ethics issues for Korean nursing students using the integrative literature review method proposed by Whittermore and Knafl. Five Korean databases were searched with queries that combined the terms ‘nursing’, ‘student’, ‘ethic’, and ‘moral’. From the 246 articles published between 2011 and September 2020, 92 were finally selected based on the inclusion criteria and data evaluation. According to the analysis, descriptive studies(75.0%) were the most common designs of article and ethics awareness(37.9%) was the most common research topics. The most frequent keywords were ‘bioethics’, ‘ethics’, ‘(moral) sensitivity’, ‘(critical) thinking’, ‘(ethical) value’, ‘education’, and ‘professionalism’. Most of the research instruments used had been developed in previous studies(88.2%), and the types of journals in which the research was published included those in interdisciplinary medical fields(47.8%), nursing(27.2%), and ethics(10.9%). The number of articles per year has been increasing, especially in 2015 and 2018, and interest in ethical issues and professional ethics has also increased since 2015. This article argues that in order to improve the quality of nursing ethic sresearch, related research should be carried out using a variety of research designs on a wider range of topics, and further develop the knowledge specific to nursing.