Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

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Nurses are confronted with numerous situations calling for moral decision-making in their workplace every day. Nursing students should therefore attain a satisfactory level of moral development during their university years. The present study was conducted to determine nursing students’ level of moral development, as there seems to be a shortage of similar studies throughout the country. This descriptive, correlational research was performed in 2010 study samples were 115 junior and senior students of the Department of Nursing and Midwifery of Tabriz University of Medical University who were selected by census. These students’ level of moral development was evaluated through the Nursing Dilemma Test (NDT), which has been created based on Kohlberg’s theory of ethical development. NDT assesses nurses’ moral development in three levels: pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional, and evaluates their observance of clinical considerations at the same time. A number of the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics were also collected through a questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using SPSS statistical software, and descriptive and inferential statistics. According to the findings of this study, 13 students (11.3%) were in the pre-conventional, 33 (28.7%) in the conventional, and 55 (47.8%) in the post-conventional level, and 14 (12.1%) took clinical considerations into account more than others. There seemed to be no meaningful statistical relationship between the students’ moral development and their age (P = 0.49), sex (P = 0.21), marital status (P = 0.79), place of education (P = 0.32), and year of education (P = 0.92). These results showed that although approximately half of the students under study were in the post-conventional level, which is an acceptable level of moral development, a great percentage were still in the lower levels. This means that those in administrative positions in nursing departments need to pay more attention to the moral education of nursing students.

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Do not resuscitate order (DNR) is one of the most challenging issues in end of life care. The attitude of health care providers has an important role in legalization of this procedure. The aim of the present study was to investigate the viewpoints of nursing students on DNR orders. One hundred and eighty six nursing students from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (TUOMS) and Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) participated in the present study. Data collection was performed by Attitude on DNR Order Questionnaire that consisted of 25 items. The results showed that nursing students have a negative attitude toward many aspects of DNR orders, had many misconceptions about this procedure and tended to acquire more information about it. Also, students reported a negative attitude about passive euthanasia and reported that cultural and religious factors are important in their attitude toward DNR orders. Moreover, there was no statistical difference between the attitudes of nursing students from these two universities with two different cultural and religious backgrounds (P > 0.05).Considering the lack of knowledge of nursing students about DNR orders it is suggested that nursing students should be educated on the subject. Due to little research evidence conducting further studies is recommended.

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The climate of clinical settings is one of the effective factors on the quality of clinical education and students' attitude toward their field of study. This research aims to determine the relationship between the ethical climate of operating rooms and the students’ attitude toward their field of study in hospitals of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.All medical students in the operating rooms of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in their second semester during the academic year 2013 - 2014 were entered into this analytic study. In addition to the demographic questionnaire, Olson’s Hospital Ethical Climate Survey and a student attitude questionnaire were used to collect the information. Data were analyzed by the SPSS 18 software using descriptive and analytical statistics methods including chi-square test and Spearman's ordinal correlation coefficient.Most of the students were female (61.4%) and single (86.8%) and the mean of their age was 20.87 ± 1.54. Additionally, 64.9% of the students had a negative perception of the ethical climate in operating rooms, while 51.8% had a positive attitude toward their field of study. Moreover, a significant relationship was found between the ethical climate and attitude of operating room students toward their field of study (P ≤ 0.001, r = 0.56). Despite the negative ethical climate of operating rooms, most of the students had a positive attitude toward their field of study. In view of the direct relationship between these two variables, improvements in the ethical climate of operating rooms and students’ attitude toward their field of study can positively affect their future career.