The effects of an ethics laboratory program on moral sensitivity and professional values in nursing students: A randomized controlled study

Background: Recently, moral sensitivity and professional values have become increasingly important in nursing education and have been tried to be improved. Objectives: To investigate the effects of an ethics laboratory program integrated with the fundamentals of nursing course on the moral sensitivity and professional values of nursing students. Design: The present study was designed as a randomized controlled study. The 8-week ethics laboratory program was applied to the students in the intervention group. In the ethics laboratory program, interactive education methods, such as ethical scenarios, case studies, roleplay, group discussions, project papers and watching movies, were applied. Control group received the standard fundamentals of nursing curriculum. Participants: The sample size was determined using stratified block randomization method, and 100 nursing students were assigned to intervention (n = 50) and control group (n = 50). Results: There was no baseline difference between the groups. The moral sensitivity average of the students in the intervention (82.66 +/- 12.57) was lower than the average of the control group (85.64 +/- 16.83) after the ethics laboratory program; however, the difference was not statistically significant (p > .05). Similarly, there were no significant differences between the intervention (132.32 +/- 16.83) and the control group (131.81 +/- 20.55) regarding the average score of professional values. In the responsibility sub-dimension of professional values, there was a statistically significant increase in the intervention group (p < .05). Conclusion: The findings suggest that the ethics laboratory program for nursing students is effective in promoting responsibility sub-dimension of professional values. However, there was no significant effect on students' moral sensitivity and other dimensions of professional values. Further refinements of interventional research in ethics education and measurement of learning outcomes should be developed.