452 Available online at www.medicinescience.org ORIGINAL ARTICLE Medicine Science 2022;11(2):452-6 The ethical attitudes for nursing care of nursing students and their ability to manage patient expectations Seher Cevi̇ k Aktura, Hakime Aslan Inonu University, Faculty of Nursing, Department of Fundamentals of Nursing, Malatya, Turkey Received 14 July 2021; Accepted 02 November 2021 Available online 06.03.2022 with doi: 10.5455/medscience.2021.07.229 Copyright@Author(s) - Available online at www.medicinescience.org Content of this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Abstract The literature lacked research examining the ethical attitudes of nursing students in nursing care and their ability to manage patient expectations. This study aimed to determine the relationship between nursing students’ ethical attitudes in providing care and their ability to manage patient expectations. This descriptive-correlational study was carried out in the nursing school a university located in eastern region of Turkey. The population of the study consisted of 1254 students studying at nursing school. The sample consisted of 400 students. The data were collected using the Participant Information Form, Ethical Attitude Scale for Nursing Care and Ability of the Managing Patient Expectations Scale. Descriptive statistics, MANOVA, Correlation and the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability analysis were used to evaluate the data. Within the scope of the study, students’ ethical attitudes in nursing care and their ability of the managing patient expectations were found to be at high levels. On the other hand, it was found that the ethical attitude in nursing care had a signifcant and positive efect on the ability to manage patient expectations. The results of the study indicate that a nurse’s ethical attitude is a signifcant factor that predicts their ability to manage patient expectations. Keywords: Ethics, nursing care, nursing students, patient expectations Introduction Today, nursing practices have made considerable progress owing to high technological and fnancial advancements. Consequently, nurses face complex care situations where they are expected to take autonomous decisions about how to provide good care to patients [1]. Providing good care means striving for full improvement of the patient’s well-being; in other words, evaluating the patient’s physical, psychological, relational, social, moral and ethical well- being as a whole is deemed a moral responsibility [2]. The ethical dimension of care cannot be limited to specifc ethical dilemmas in the context of the beginning and end of life. On the contrary, the ethical dimension of care is an important part of the nursing practice [3]. Nurses make ethical decisions in providing care to patients daily. Using physical restraints in elderly care and handling communication or privacy issues are examples of such ethical decisions. Making the correct decisions in such complicated situations requires not only medical/technical competence but also the ability to develop a critical approach and ethical competence [5]. Nursing education includes vast content related to care and practices, and ethics is gaining increasing importance in this stream of education. As the ethical dimension of care is the basis of the nursing practice, it should be addressed. Strengthening nursing students’ perception of ethics in their education shall make clinical practices more accurate [5]. Nurses are the leading supporters of patient education and safety. Patients have various expectations from the moment they arrive at the hospital [6]. These expectations vary depending on many factors, such as the severity, clinical signs and course of the disease and their bio-psycho-social status, social support system and past experiences. Patient expectations constitute an important psycho- social issue that is closely related to the sense of satisfaction [7]. Developing good communication with patients, encouraging patients to express their expectations and managing patient expectations are, therefore, important nursing approaches. Some *Corresponding Author: Hakime Aslan, Inonu University, Faculty of Nursing, Department of Fundamentals of Nursing, Malatya, Turkey E-mail: hakime.aslan@inonu.edu.tr Medicine Science International Medical Journal