Incorporating an \u201cethics-focused component\u201d into goals of care (GOC) oncology nursing training \u201cis an effective strategy for increasing nurses\u2019 utilization of clinical ethics consultation services,\u201d according to results from a recent study.<\/p>\n
Victoria McClosky, RN, BSN, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, conducted the study and presented the findings as an abstract during the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 2026 Annual Conference.<\/p>\n
Ms. McClosky explained that oncology nurses \u201cfrequently encounter ethically challenging situations\u201d in their roles but underscored that many \u201cmay feel uncertain about accessing institutional ethical resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, Ms. McClosky highlighted that in 2023, \u201ca large NCI-designated cancer center\u201d launched a GOC training program that included an \u201cembedded ethics-focused component designed to enhance nurses\u2019 utilization of clinical ethics consultation services.\u201d<\/p>\n
To empower oncology nurses to utilize ethics-based resources at their institution and improve the nurses\u2019 \u201cunderstanding of ethics issues,\u201d the GOC training program \u201cincorporated case studies involving challenging ethics issues and dilemmas.\u201d Ms. McClosky explained that her research analyzed whether the ethics-based component of the GOC program \u201cincreases nurses\u2019 likelihood of consulting the clinical ethics consultation services.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before nurses participated in the GOC training program, Ms. McClosky identified that \u201cethics consults were primarily initiated by providers and unit leaders, with minimal reporting from nurses\u201d at the NCI-designated institution. She explained that \u201canecdotal feedback\u201d from the study suggested that \u201cnurse utilization of the ethics line was underreported, despite their frequent exposure to ethically complex dilemmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nurses at the institution carried out 36 consultations from October 2023 to May 2024, \u201cwith nurses serving as the lead requestor in 23 cases.\u201d According to the results, a 26.67% increase in \u201cnurse-initiated consults\u201d and a 58.53% increase in \u201cunit span\u201d were observed with implementation of the ethics component of the GOC training program.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, nursing units at the institution with \u201chigher completion rates of the GOC training program were associated with increased nurse-initiated consultations, suggesting a direct relationship between GOC training and utilization of ethics resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
In reflecting on the findings, Ms. McClosky explained that the results support \u201cfurther expansion of the ethics-focused component of the GOC training program\u201d and that future research could enhance clinical ethics knowledge among oncology nurses by evaluating \u201cthe most significant ethical issues and dilemmas encountered by nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Incorporating an \u201cethics-focused component\u201d into goals of care (GOC) oncology nursing training \u201cis an effective strategy for increasing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[134,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-370106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}