Determinants of nursing students' inclination to ethical values: Compassionate love and perceived social support from the family

Abstract

Background: Since professional values and the associated behaviors constitute the basis of practice in nursing, which is a profession based on professional ethics and ethical values, it is important to determine the inclination of nurses and nursing students to ethical values and the associated factors.

Aim: In this study, it was aimed to determine nursing students' levels of inclination to ethical values, compassionate love and perceived social support from the family, to examine the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics, compassionate love and perceived social support from family and inclination to ethical values, and the determining factors affecting the inclination to ethical values.

Design: This is a descriptive relational study.

Methods: The study was conducted with 558 students studying at the faculty of nursing between April-June 2022. The data were collected face-to-face using the Personal Information Form, Inclination to Ethical Values Scale, Compassionate Love Scale, and Scale of Perceived Social Support from Family.

Results: It was found that there was a positive and significant relationship between compassionate love and perceived social support from the family and the level of inclination to ethical values, and that the mean scores of compassionate love (β = 0.882) and perceived social support from the family (β = 0.623) explained 89.3% of the change in the level of inclination to ethical values.

Conclusions: It was observed that males, freshman students, those with illiterate parents and students who did not take courses on ethics were in the risky group in terms of inclination to ethical values, and that sociodemographic characteristics, compassionate love and perceived social support from the family were the determinants of inclination to ethical values.

Keywords: Compassionate love; Inclination to ethical values; Nursing students; Perceived social support.