Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To study the ethical reasoning of nurses and physicians, and to assess whether or not modified focus groups are a valuable tool for this purpose. DESIGN: Discussion of cases in modified focus groups, each consisting of three physicians and three nurses. The discussion was taped and analysed by content analysis. SETTING: Five departments of internal medicine at Danish hospitals. SAMPLE: Seven discussion groups. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Ethical content of statements, style of statements, time used by each participant. RESULTS: Danish physicians and nurses do not differ in the kind of ethical reasoning they use, but physicians use more of the discussion time than nurses, they use a more assertive style of argumentation, and the solutions chosen are usually first put forward by physicians. CONCLUSION: The results and informal comparisons with similar data from long qualitative interviews indicate that groups of this kind are a useful tool for gathering data on ethical reasoning.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Self D. J., Skeel J. D. Facilitating healthcare ethics research: assessment of moral reasoning and moral orientation from a single interview. Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 1992 Fall;1(4):371–376. doi: 10.1017/s0963180100006563. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]