Influencing factors of nursing students' Consciousness of Biomedical Ethics: Focusing on good death awareness, ethical values, and will to respect life

Objectives This study was performed to provide basic data supporting the development of a biomedical ethics education program by identifying the impact of nursing students' awareness of the good death concept, their ethical values, and their intent to respect life on their biomedical ethics perspectives. Methods Participants in this study were nursing students located in G City who understood the purpose of the study and voluntarily agreed to participate. Questionnaires were distributed from October 16 to October 31, 2023; 336 responses were analyzed. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 23.0 program using t-test, one way ANOVA, Scheffe’s test, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Results The consciousness of biomedical ethics of nursing students was 2.29 points, the good death awareness was 3.02 points, the ethical values were 3.74 points, and the will to respect life was 4.23 points. The consciousness of biomedical Ethics according to the general characteristics of the subjects showed significant differences in age (F=7.07, p=.000), gender (F=2.87, p=004), and religion (t=4.20, p=.000). Analysis of the factors affecting nursing students’ consciousness of biomedical ethics revealed that age, gender, religion, and good death awareness yielded an explanatory power of 13.5%. Conclusions The results of this study indicate a need for further research to identify other factors affecting consciousness of biomedical ethics among nursing students, and to develop an effective educational program that can expand consciousness of biomedical ethics.