After watching Miss Evers’ Boys, my understanding of the current contributions of nurses in ethical conduct has not changed, but my understanding of historical ethical conduct has. It was very interesting to see that nurses had no say in what the patients should and should not know about their own care. It was sad to see the lack of knowledge patients were being given about their care simply because the doctors did not think they would understand. Also, it was disturbing to see that even after a cure was found, it was not being used and the patients were not even given an opportunity to try it. I think it is important to see how far we have come as nurses when it come to providing ethical care for our patients. If a nurse were to see an unethical form of research they would be obligated to report because the patients safety is the main focus. The assignments through out the semester have helped shape my understanding of what it takes to participate in ethical research, quality improvement and EBP initiatives. I believe that I could actively participate in a research study with the patients right and safety in mind. I also think I could identify when something was unethical and I would be able to go to the ethics committee to seek help and make changes to the study. Knowing the nurses role in ethical research and seeing the history of an unethical research study has helped educate me on what it takes to participate in research.
