Prior to completing the ethics assignments, I wasn’t sure about much about the nurse’s role in ethics. I assume that nurses would want to be their patient’s best advocate in the entire process, so I’m curious if they would be more cautious with informed consent and weighing possible risks and benefits for them because of that. Since the nurse has arguably the most time at the bedside with the patient, they most likely would gather the most evidence if a project was implementing something in that setting. Prior to this class and watching videos from other chapters, I didn’t know that nurses were a part of the research role and could even come up with possible PICOT and ideas to better their facility and patient-care. I believe nurses will always keep their patient as their top priority and depending on the style of the study will need to be aware of maintaining confidentiality and respecting the research study and only providing what information the patient is allowed to know to them. Nurses could also answer any questions that the patients have throughout the process.
Completing these ethics assignments has broaden my view on how much of an impact nurse’s have to the ethical side of research. The most eye-opening was the movie Miss Evers’ Boys since that went into detail to the story of the Tuskegee experiment and the impact it had. The role of the nurse portrayed by the character Eunice rides the fine line between wanting to protect the nature of the study but yet provide accurate information on treatment to the patients some of whom are her friends. She was forced to withhold information from the patients about how this was still a worthwhile study to be a participant in even though Penicillin had already been found to be a valid treatment for Syphilis. This example shows how it may be difficult to treat certain patients, especially in this case when the morals of the study weren’t strong to begin with. Nurses should be aware of the history of ethics in order to self-reflect and analyze our own morals prior to possibly participating in a research study. With the many checkpoints now that research studies have to go through now there is a much slimmer chance for anything unethical like this to occur again. This course has introduced me to the basis of what nursing research is and what is possible to attain in my career. I will continue to gain knowledge in the next EBP course and get more confident in my research skills. I have enjoyed broadening my skills of using research engines through this course and learning how to make searches more specific.
