Abstract Ethics is a core concept in nursing practice. However, traditional approaches to teaching ethics are not sufficient and ethicists have to devise creative new approaches for the new generation of students. This paper reports a two-year action research conducted in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, during 2004-2006. Participants were first year nursing students during four consecutive semesters. The traditional class ran concurrently for students not willing to participate in the research study. Data were gathered and analysed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings indicate a significant change in students’ perceptions toward nursing ethics using the new teaching approach. A practical approach to teaching ethics, allowing students’ participation, is essential if nursing faculties are to change students’ negative perceptions regarding nursing ethics. Teaching ethics in nursing education has become increasingly important in recent years. In order to train nurses to participate in ethical decision making, more contemporary models of teaching ethics are being implemented in nursing programmes around the world (1). Teaching ethics has also been recognised as an essential requirement in clinical medicine by Muslim scholars. Great Iranian Muslim scholars such as Avicenna (AD 981-1037) laid special emphasis on teaching and practising medical ethics (2). Despite this, the concept of professional ethics has not been clearly defined or taught in nursing schools. The researchers’ experiences in different nursing schools in Iran indicate that the nursing ethics course is ignored and nursing students are increasingly becoming insensitive to ethical issues in day to day nursing work. In fact, there was only one course on the topic “Nursing history, deontology and law” in the Bachelor of Science (BSc) nursing curriculum. This was a two-unit course which was mainly about nursing history and law rather than nursing ethics. There were no complementary courses that would link and integrate these concepts with practical aspects of nursing work. ARTICLE A new approach for teaching nursing ethics in Iran ALIREZA NIKBAKHT NASRABADI 1 , SOODABEH JOOLAEE 2 , ZOHRE PARSA-YEKTA 3 , NASSER BAHRANI 4 , FATEMEH NOGHANI 5, VASSO VYDELINGUM 6 1 Medical Surgical Group, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran IRAN email: nikbakht@sina.tums.ac.ir 2 Centre for Nursing Care Research, Nursing and Midwifery School, University of Medical Sciences, Tehran IRAN email: sjoolaee@yahoo.com 3 Medical Surgical Group, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran IRAN email: zparsa@tums.ac.ir 4 Shahid Sattari University, Tehran IRAN email: Bahrani@yahoo.com 5 Medical Surgical Group, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran IRAN email: fnoughani@yahoo.com 6 Director of Studies, Advanced Practice Masters, University of Surrey, Guilford UK email: V.Vydelingum@surrey.ac.uk Nursing ethics, like all ethics courses that deal with actual problems and not just theory, is best taught when the teacher builds in time for dialogue (3). It seems that traditional approaches for teaching ethics are no longer sufficient and ethicists will have to devise creative new approaches for the new generation of students (4). The traditional approaches are mainly based on lectures and are teacher-centred, so students’ active participation is a matter of concern. There are few comprehensive studies about the content and ways of teaching ethics, and many questions regarding the central aspect of ethics education remain unanswered (5). Moreover, researchers continue to have different views on the goals and objectives of teaching ethics to healthcare students (6). There are different views on how ethics should be taught in medical schools and also what should be taught (7). Many texts and research findings emphasise the importance of teaching ethics through flexible and realistic approaches rather than the traditional theory-based routes. The justification for this is that there are limitations to the traditional models of ethical education and decision making which do not address the new, expanded role of nurses (4, 8). Self and Baldwin found that many ethics teachers tend to focus exclusively on curriculum content and disregard the considerable contribution that students themselves can make to such courses (9). There is much debate over how healthcare ethics should be taught. Some researchers and teachers argue for lectures and others for clinical experience and reflection; some believe in a theory-based approach while others think that instruction in ethical theory should be kept to a minimum (5, 10). This paper reports research that was undertaken with the aim of changing nursing students’ negative perceptions regarding nursing ethics by utilising innovative teaching methods in the Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) in 2004-2006. Methodology This is an action research. Action research (AR) is a process of inquiry that describes, interprets, and explains social situations by intervening to bring about improvement and involvement (11). AR is a critical social activity relying on participation Indian Journal of Medical Ethics Vol VI No 2 April-June 2009 [ 85 ]