Education and Ethics In Nursing ISSN: 2322-5300

Challenges of ethics education in nursing students: A scoping review study

10.22034/ethic.2026.2084705.1222
Volume 15, Issue 1
June 2026
Pages 97-106
Education and Ethics In Nursing ISSN: 2322-5300

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

marzieh seif 1
Mohammad Mehdi Daraee 2
Meysam Safi-Keykaleh 3
Parisa Solgi 4

1 Instructor of Pediatric Nursing, Nahavand School of Allied Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.

2 Instructor of Pediatric Nursing, Nahavand School of Allied Medical Sciences. Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

3 Assistant Professor of Health in Disasters and Emergencies, Nahavand School of Allied Medical Sciences, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.

4 Instructor of Psychiatric nursing, Nahavand School of Allied Medical Sciences. Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

Abstract
Abstract
Background: One of the factors in developing ethical competence in nurses is ethics education during student life. Undoubtedly, nursing education has an important role in developing professional ethics, but the question is whether ethics education in nurses has reached its desired level? Therefore, the present study was designed to address the challenges of ethics education in nursing with the aim of addressing students.
Methods: This was a scoping review study conducted between 1/1/2010 and 1/11/2025 using keywords and using English databases (Scopus, PubMed) and Persian databases (SID, Magiran, and Irandoc) and the Google Scholar search engine. Screening and selection of documents were performed based on the Prisma guidelines.
Findings: In the initial search, 110 articles were found, of which 20 articles were included in the study by removing duplicates and those unrelated to the research objective and inclusion criteria. Accordingly, the challenges of ethics education in nursing can be divided into 3 categories: ethics theory education, ethics education in the clinic, and contextual factors such as the nature of the discipline and personality factors of individuals.
Conclusion: The shortcomings of educational syllabus and disregard for the culture of society in educational books, the lack of instructors proficient in ethics, the use of inappropriate methods in teaching ethical issues, evaluation problems and the lack of objective tools for evaluating students' abilities in the field of professional ethics, the gap between teaching ethical theory and its application in the clinic, and contextual factors such as lack of motivation and low ability to communicate with clients are some of the challenges of ethics education in nursing students.

Keywords

Ethics
Education
Nursing
Professional Ethics
Subjects
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