NURSING-STUDENTS RESPONSES TO ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN NURSING PRACTICE

In literature as well as in nursing practice a growing concern about n urses' ethical competence can be observed. Based on the cognitive theo ry of moral development by Kohlberg, this research examined nursing st udents' ethical behaviour in five nursing dilemmas. Ethical behaviour refers not only to the ethical reasoning of nursing students but also to the relationship between reasoning and behaviour. Kohlberg's defini tion of morality was refined by adding a care perspective. The results show that the majority of students can be located in the fourth moral stage according to Kohlberg's theory, that is, the conventional level of moral development. This finding implies that students are still gu ided by professional rules, norms and duties, and have not (yet) succe eded in making personal ethical decisions on the basis of their own pr inciples and acting according to such decisions.