The principle of beneficence in nursing care: an integrative review

Abstract

Abstract Background: Ethics-based nursing practice can transform health care practices. As the biggest human capital in the health care system, nurses are obliged to follow the ethical principles in this field. One of these ethical principles; is beneficence, which is considered the core of nursing care. This study aimed to investigate the ethical principle of beneficence in nursing care and its related challenges. Methods: This integrative review was conducted using the Whittemore & Knafl method in 5 stages, including problem identification, searching the literature, evaluating primary sources, analyzing data, and presenting the results. Databases like SID, Irandoc, Magiran, Google Scholar, Web of science, PubMed, and Scopus were searched using the keywords; "beneficence", "ethic", "nursing" and "care" in English and Persian. After applying inclusion criteria and assessing the articles using Bowling's Quality Assessment Tool, finally, 16 papers were included from 957. Results: After reviewing and evaluating the qualified articles, the findings were classified into four main categories: 1) nature, 2) applicability, 3) Relevant and influential factors, and 4) challenges related to the ethical principle of beneficence in nursing care. Conclusion: Based on the results of this review it seems that paying attention to training to the principle of beneficence in nursing care can provide positive outcomes for patients to benefit from this principle and finally, it leads to increasing the well-being and health of patients, reducing their mortality rate, increasing satisfaction and maintaining the respect and human dignity of patients.