The role of conscience of nurses and physicians in their medical practices: With an attitude research

Being assessed by various disciplines, the conscience is a fundamental concept and can be defined as the sense of right and wrong. In cases of ethical conflicts, health care professionals may refer to the feeling of conscience and adopt conscience as a guide that enables them to differentiate right from wrong and directs them to act in the right way. During professional setting, prominent conscientious feelings are experienced by healthcare professionals. Because of insufficient healthcare resources, excessive workload and witnessing suffering, nurses and physicians confront some conflict problems emerged as competing ethical values. Healthcare professionals try to preserve their moral integrity by acting in line with their conscience. This study was conducted to determine the views of nurses and physicians worked in Cukurova University Hospital on conscience and to investigate the differences between the two groups. The sample consisted of 152 nurses and 114 physicians aged from 20 to 48 years. Participants completed a self reported questionnaire consisted of demographic information and Likert-6 type items concerning conscience. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. While the nurses were more likely to agree with the statement "we cannot avoid the voice of conscience"; the physicians were more likely to agree with "our conscience can give us the wrong signals". Both groups tended to disagree with the statement "I have to deaden my conscience in order to keep working in healthcare". Statistically significant positive correlations were found between the age and agreement with the statements "voice of conscience must be interpreted", "when I follow my conscience, I develop as a human being". According to the results of this study, it can be concluded that conscience is important for both professional groups. However, there are statistically significant differences between the nurses' and physicians' views on conscience. Key Words: Conscience, Ethical Decision Making, Healthcare Professionals, Medical Ethics