Nursing students’ perceptions of ethical behavior in undergraduate nursing faculty

SummaryEthical dilemmas in clinical nursing practice and areas of nursing research have been reported, but a paucity of current nursing research exists pertaining to ethical concerns between undergraduate nursing students and nurse educators. The study examined students’ perceptions of ethical behavior in faculty of undergraduate nursing. Using an exploratory, mixed-methods approach, 101 members of a student nursing organization in the southeastern region of the United States participated in the study by completing the 16-item, anonymous questionnaire. Thirteen participants also submitted narratives describing their personal experiences with nursing faculty as it related to ethical interactions in the learning environment. The majority reported their experiences with nursing instructors to be ethical with no reports of sexual involvement with students. Instructor expectations of gifts from their students were almost non-existent. The narrative analysis yielded the following themes: bias: racial, gender, and other; humiliation, confidentiality, grading, uncaring, and cheating. Faculty–student interactions in nursing education are extremely complex. Instructors’ increased awareness of their interaction with students and the adoption of ethical guidelines by schools of nursing are suggested.