Selected Factors Influencing Nursing Students’ Ethical Behaviors according to Thai Qualifications Framework in a Private University Bangkok

Abstract

Purpose: To study selected factors influencing nursing students’ ethical behaviors according to the Thai Qualifications Framework (TQF) in a private university in Bangkok. 

Design: Descriptive predictive research

Method: This study used a research framework according to TQF for higher education. Samples were 100 of the third and fourth-year nursing students from Mission Faculty of Nursing, Asia-Pacific International University. Research instruments consisted of ethical atmosphere in the institution questionnaire, instructors’ ethical behaviors questionnaire, ethical learning and teaching in the nursing questionnaire, and nursing students’ ethical behaviors according to TQF questionnaire. The reliabilities of these questionnaires were .91, .92, .95, and .98, respectively. Statistical analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression. 

Finding: The average scores of ethical atmosphere in the institution, instructors’ ethical behaviors, ethical learning and teaching in nursing, and nursing students’ ethical behaviors according to TQF were at a high level. The third and fourth year of nursing students’ ethical behaviors according to TQF were not different at statistical significance. Additionally, ethical learning and teaching in nursing and the ethical atmosphere in the institution accounted for 63 .2% of the overall variance in the nursing students’ ethical behaviors according to TQF

Conclusion: Administrators and instructors need to promote an ethical atmosphere in the institution, arrange both intra-curricular and extra-curricular activities continuously for promoting morality and ethics throughout each year of the curriculum. Subsequently, the students embed ethical behaviors sustainably.