Data will be collected from nurse leaders through November.
Ethical challenges that nurse leaders face during crisis situations—a pandemic, for example—is the subject of a research study seeking participants.
The study, a collaboration between R3 (Renewal, Resilience and Retention) Resilient Nurses Initiative, Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, and the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL), seeks nurse leaders who have practiced in the United States since 2019.
Data will be collected through November 2022, and once completed, the study’s findings will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal and shared at a variety of professional conferences.
Cynda Rushton, PHD, MSN, RN, the Anne and George L. Bunting Professor of Clinical Ethics at Johns Hopkins, is the study’s principal investigator and agreed to a short Q&A about the study. Her answers have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
HealthLeaders: Besides an event like the COVID-19 pandemic, what are the types of crisis situations this study might address?
Cynda Rushton: This study aims to understand the range of ethical challenges that nurse leaders faced during the pandemic. Some are specifically related to the pandemic and others are longstanding issues that nurse leaders have faced that were exacerbated by the pandemic.
HL: What is an example or two of ethical concerns that a nurse leader might face during a crisis?
Rushton: Allocation of scarce resources, including human resources (staff), in a way that is equitable, respectful, and fair to both the employees and the people they serve. During the pandemic, many nurse leaders were involved in determining who would be able to be present with patients including at the end of their lives and they struggled to make consistent and fair decisions.
Nurse leaders were responsible for budgetary decisions that involved unacceptable tradeoffs or dealing with the pay inequities created by needing to use temporary traveling nurses to meet patient needs.
HL: Can you provide an example of what a couple of the questions are on this survey?
Rushton: The questions focus on key issues that nurse leaders may have faced, their appraisal of organizational effectiveness in responding to them and how the challenges impacted them.
Carol Davis is the Nursing Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A new study is seeking nurse leader input into ethical challenges they face during crisis situations.
Data will be collected through November 2022.
Survey questions address key issues nurse leaders faced, how their organization responded, and how the challenges impacted them.