The Ethics of Teaching in the Clinical Arena

Abstract

Clinical practicum forms an important component in undergraduate nursing education and involves clinical nurse educators who are primarily involved in teaching student nurses. Twelve clinical nurse educators participated in this grounded theory study, and these participants taught in a number of undergraduate nursing programs in a large metropolitan city in Ontario, Canada. The results from this study revealed four important concepts that underpinned their teaching and, in this article, the author explains one foundational concept: The ethics found in the pedagogical practices of clinical nurse educators. This result provides a deeper and broader understanding of the ethical issues that clinical nurse educators encounter in their teaching practice, how these considerations contribute to student learning and some of the challenges that they encounter in the clinical arena.