Integrity is essential for society as it keeps the relationships between individuals, helps make ethically correct decisions, builds careers, and profoundly influences people. Such behavior is a deliberate honesty with others, therefore it shows a person’s moral solid principles (Perfetto, 2019).
In the nursing career, integrity is vital for caregiving and maintaining a profound workplace environment. Nursing personnel’s role as a connector between clients, their families, and physicians is an ethically sensitive area where the decisions can affect people’s lives. Nurses who developed integrity as a significant value and actively apply it in their daily practices free themselves from the risks of dishonesty’s consequences (Eby et al., 2017). Moreover, such a moral setting is a point to rely on in decision-making while assisting physicians or resolving direct requests from patients.
Receiving nursing education is an appropriate period for a person to develop their moral principles and actively address them. Indeed, students must make choices and decisions which will affect their grades and career. Besides, various ethical themes are included in the nursing educational programs to help future nurses learn what values are vital for successful and meaningful work in a healthcare facility (Eby et al., 2017). Although most students are familiar with the core morals such as integrity, they do not follow them in the educational setting.
Unethical actions happen because the learning process is frequently perceived as artificial, therefore cheating or falsifying assignments does not mean that they will act similarly in the actual work. Besides, nursing students might feel overwhelmed by the volume of subjects to learn, jobs to seek, and internships to apply for (Perfetto, 2019). The demand in passing everything on time forces them to make non-ethical decisions. Lastly, the lack of understanding that moral values must be developed and solicited before real nursing begins makes the students refuse to implement ethics in challenging education-related situations (Perfetto, 2019). The solution to helping future nurses change their behavior towards integrity during studying is to promote and reward it actively. Furthermore, evidence-based information about the values’ importance in all life areas and support for individuals who struggle with a volume of subjects to study might be beneficial.
References
Eby, R. A., Hartley, P. L., Hodges, P. J., & Hoffpauir, R. B. (2017). Fostering ethical integrity in nursing education. Journal of Christian Nursing, 34(4), 250-255. Web.
Perfetto, L. M. (2019). Preparing the nurse of the future: Emergent themes in online RN-BSN education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 40(1), 18-24. Web.