Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
2 Nursing Department, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
3 Iranian Research Center on Healthy Aging, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran
Abstract
Background: Making ethical decisions is significant in health systems committed to ethics. Meanwhile, determining how nursing managers incorporate ethical values in their decision-making processes is crucial in developing ethical decisions and achieving the ethical goals of healthcare organizations. This study aims to explore the ethical decision-making process in nursing managers.
Methods: This qualitative study was carried out in Tehran hospitals in 2020. Data was analyzed using the Grounded Theory method according to Strauss and Corbin’s 2015 approach. Twenty-three in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 nursing managers and 3 nurses. Purposeful and theoretical sampling continued until theoretical saturation was achieved.
Results: Conscientiousness was a core variable in managers’ ethical decision-making processes. Nursing managers working in unreliable organizational environments rely on 4 strategies (client orientation, cross-evaluation, contingency decision-making, and prioritizing individual rights over organizational regulations) to gain the comfort of conscience and overcome the anxiety they experience when consciousness is not met at work.
Conclusion: Senior managers should take unmanageable organizational environments seriously as a cause of concern for nursing managers. Creating healthy interpersonal relationships and setting up a creative atmosphere effectively improve the organizational environment. Managers’ sensitivity to teaching ethical and managerial principles and developing a positive attitude towards applying ethics can facilitate managers’ ethical decision-making processes. Also, employing empowered managers in decision-making and giving them sufficient autonomy in describing their responsibilities can effectively reduce their decision-making barriers.
Highlights
Zohreh Vanaki (PubMed) (Google Scholar)
Keywords
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