Analysis of nursing students' perception of Korean nurses' code of ethics

Objectives As the importance of the ethical awareness of nursing students who will play the role of caring for patients as nurses in clinical practice sites is emphasized, the purpose is to systematically check and deeply understand how nursing students currently perceive the Korean code of ethics for nurses. Methods Through an open-ended questionnaire, first-year nursing students who took a bioethics course for one semester at a private junior college in Gwangju Metropolitan City were asked to select the ethical code they thought was most important among the 16 items of the Korean Nurses' Code of Ethics and to write the reason for their choice. The data were analyzed using content analysis from June 3 to June 10, 2024, targeting a total of 204 people. Results Among the 16 items of the Korean Code of Nurse Ethics, 1. Provision of equal nursing care (24.5%), 14. Compliance with relationship ethics (15.2%), 4. Respect for the right to know and self-determination (12.2%), 3. Protection of privacy and confidentiality (8.8%), 13. Maintaining health and dignity (8.8%), 12. Nursing for safety (6.4%), 7. Protection of human dignity (5.4%), 5. Protection of vulnerable care recipients (3.9%), 6. Implementing a healthy environment (2.9%), 8. Compliance with nursing standards (2.4%), 9. Education and research (2.0%), 10. Policy participation (2.0%), 2. Respecting individual needs (1.5%), 15. Nursing The distribution of importance was shown in the following order: protection of subjects (1.5%), 16. cooperation and vigilance of advanced life science and technology (1.5%), and 11. promotion of justice and trust (1.0%). Ultimately, 39 themes and 72 statements supporting the reasons were created. Conclusions Through an analysis of nursing students' awareness of the Korean nurses' code of ethics, we identified the main contents that should be covered in the nursing ethics curriculum to safely perform nurses' work. In the future, it can be used as key basic data reflecting the opinions of actual students in revising the Korean code of ethics for nurses.