1. Mike Czechowskyj Ferris State University
Nursing Ethics Education and Support
Mike Czechowskyj Ferris State University

2. Ethics
Rules of behaviors based on ideas about what is morally good and bad. (Merrium & Webster, 2014)
Health care professionals encounter ethical situations on a constant basis.
For the best patient outcomes nurses need to be able to identify these situations and react appropriately.

3. The gap
What is the current state of ethics in the continuing care setting?
How are nurses involved?
What is the future state the
CNO would like to see?

4. The Proposed Plan
What is the root cause and the barriers related to a lack of recognizing ethical situations?
A fishbone diagram was used to visually identify the issues.

5. Fishbone for Unrecognized Ethical Situations
Physicians
Health System
Resources
Money
Infrastructure
Capacity to help
Ethicist
Knowledge of problem
Unable to act on ethical concerns
Identify the need
Provide finances
Prioritize the project
Education
How to get support
Baseline knowledge
Administration
Nursing Staff

6. The Proposed Plan
The plan starts by working with key stakeholders to develop a survey, education presentation and algorithm.
The survey will be given to nurses in the facility identified
The same nurses will then be taught using the education presentation.
They will also be taught the algorithm they can use when ethical situations are identified.
There will then be a post survey to validate that the nurses understand the new plan.

7. Change Theory Used
Influencer Model (Patterson, Grenny, Maxield, McMillan, & Switzler, 2008)
Change the environment
Harness peer pressure
Find strength in numbers
Designing rewards and demand accountability

8. Leadership Theory Used
Authentic Leadership (Waite, Mckinney, Smith-Glasgow, & Meloy, 2014).
Understands sense of one’s self
Perceived as open, optimistic, and resilient.
Genuine

9. Evidence to Support This Plan
In the current environment the CNO has identified a lack of ethical awareness.
Lack of good ethical education in nursing school (Vynckier, Gastmans, Cannaerts, & Dierckx de Casterle, 2014).
No continuing education currently in the workplace at Spectrum Health Continuing Care.
Having an algorithm will help with decision making.
Better ethical identification would lead to less burnout and turnover (Blacking, 2011).

10. Implementation Support
Using QSEN competencies (QSEN Institute, 2014)
Teamwork and Collaboration
Safety
ANA Scope & Standards (American Nurses Association 2009)
Collaboration
Ethics
Resource Utilization

11. Facility Identified Spectrum Health Continuing Care Hospice
Why this unit?
Who will be educated?

12. Preceptor Deb Cress, MSN, RN, NE-BC. CNO
Why is she qualified to oversee this project?
Years of experience
Access to resources
Ability to break down barriers

13. Evaluation Two different result evaluations Survey results
Number of ethics consults

14. Conclusion
This plan should set up Spectrum Health Continuing Care for…
Better recognition of ethical situations
Improved support for the patients
Added support for the nursing staff
Less burnout and frustration

15. References
American Nurses Association. (2009). Nursing Administration: Scope and standards of practice. Silver Spring, MD: Nursebooks.org. Blacking, C. (2011). Empowering nurses to participate in ethical-decision making at the bedside. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 42(1), dio: / Merriam- Websters. (2014). Ethics. Retrieved from Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Maxield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2008). Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. QSEN institute, (2014). Graduate KSAS. Retrieved from Vynckier, T., Gastmans, C., Cannaerts, N., & Dierckx de Casterle, B. (2014). Effectiveness of ethics education as perceived by nursing students: development and testing of a novel assessment instrument. Nursing Ethics. dio: / Waite, R., Mckinney, N., Smith-Glasgow, M. E., & Meloy, F. A. (2014). The embodiment of authentic leadership. Journal of Professional Nursing, 30(4), dio: j.profnurs