간호사의 도덕판단력과 영향 요인 분석

For the nurses to make a moral judgment on their own initiative, it is necessary for them to have an adequate knowledge on the theories of ethics, on the ethical principles and the obligations, and on the systematic frameworks of application.

As a part of the study to inquire into the moral judgment levels of the nurses, 53 nurses, who had worked one year or more as clinical staff in hospitals after graduating from Junior Colleges of Nursing, have been surveyed, using the Korean version of DIT. The results of this survey were analyzed to find out the level of moral judgment of nurses and the factors that influence their moral judgment. A summary of the findings is as follows:

1. Out of three Moral Judgment Levels, responding nurses gave relatively high scores on the 3rd Stage(13.6) and the 4ih Stage(14.9) which belong to the Moral Judgment Level 2 conventional morality. They also gave 42.3 point on P Scone, which indicates that they rely on the ethical principle when they make moral judgment, and 18.8 point on D Score, which indicates the overall level of moral judgment. These scores, when compared with the result of the Korean Sample Survey, are higher than college student groups and lower than general adult groups.

2. For the most important consideration out of 12 items in making moral judgment in each of six stories, the predominant numbers of nurses selected the item that belong to the 4th Stage social system morality.

3. When analyzing the factors that influenced the moral development scores in each stage, it was revealed that the number of brothers was a very significant factor in the 1st, 2nd, 5lh, and 6th Stages higher the score when the number of brothers is larger in the 1st and 2nd Stage(Moral Judgment Level 1) and higher the score when the number of brothers is smaller in 5th and 6th Stage(Moral Judgment Level 3).

4. In analyzing the factors that influenced the Moral sudgment Index P and D, it was revealed that the level of education of father and the number of brothers influenced significantly for Index P, and that the age and the number of brothers influenced Index D. This indicated that the nurses with fewer number of brothers not only held higher level of moral judgment but also relied more on the ethical principles in making moral judgment.

It has a limitation in generalizing these findings, for it was based on a survey conducted among a small group of nurses. However, this study has its own significance in view of the fact that it was the first survey conducted in Korea on the moral judgment levels of nurses, which are important in making ethical decisions in exercising their profession.