Abstract

The objectives of this study were to assess the world views of faculty investigators in dentistry, nursing, and pharmacy; their identification of ethical issues; and the importance of ethical principles in human subject research. Relationships between world views and the identification of ethical issues and importance of ethical principles were also explored. World views were theorized as biological-technical, psychological-sociological, and biochemical for dentistry, nursing, and pharmacy respectively. A review of the literature supported these models and suggested that the constructs of autonomy, beneficence/nonmaleficence, and justice be used in determining identification and importance of ethical issues and principles. An instrument consisting of 59 items was developed and a pilot study conducted. In an attempt to obtain the desired number of respondents two mailings of the questionnaire were initiated to a total of 264 randomly selected faculty investigators in each discipline. These individuals held both professional and doctoral degrees and were employed in universities within the United States. The response rates were 32.95% for dentistry, 51.89% for nursing, and 35.23% for pharmacy. No response bias was present. The reliability of the instrument was.82. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results support the world views theorized for dentistry and nursing but was different than expected for pharmacy. A psychological-sociological world view was found in pharmacy. For all disciplines the highest mean value on the identification scale was given to autonomy. Respondents indicated this principle as most important in nursing and pharmacy. Beneficence/nonmaleficence was deemed more important by dentists. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine relationships between world views and identification of ethical issues and world views and the importance of ethical principles; none were significant. The study is significant because of the development of an instrument, compilation of demographic characteristics, and documentation of world views. Results lend support to the findings of previous studies associating age and gender with moral development. Implications for further research as well as ethics education, revision of codes of ethics, and institutional review boards are apparent.