Georgetown University Medical Center

Fumie Arie, DNSc

Section: Visiting Scholar Program

Dr. Fumie Arie received the Doctor of Nursing Science degree from St. Luke's College of Nursing (Japan).

Research Topic: Nurses' Ethical Concerns in Organ Transplantation

Summary:
As health care specialists, nurses are required to perform nursing actions which ethically respect the dignity and rights of their patients as well as understanding that many people with different emotions and thoughts are involved in the medical process in organ transplant.
Due to the daily busyness and routine of providing nursing care, nurses seldom notice ethical problems. They must take responsibility for their judgments and acts as members of the transplant teams, nursing specialists in society, and as advocates for donors, recipients, and families. There is little research focusing on the individual experiences of nurses. In actual clinical situations, nurses face many problems that are diffcult to solve by following only existing therories and principles.
In order for nurses to get involved in ethical issues attention mus be directed toward them specifically. This study focuses on aspects of individual concern including the reasons why nurses might regard some matters as problematic as well as their individual concerns through their experiences.
The aim of the study is to examine indivudual nurses's concerns while providing care for the donors, recipients and their families in daily clinical sites of organ tranplantation and determine the correlations between the nurses' concerns and ethics in organ transplant nursing. And I will examine concepts which are considered to be as fundamental for the development ethical theory in organ transplant nursing.
I have already conducted interviews with nurses in Japan, and the data has been analyzed. However, data description and interpretations need to be developed and completed. Therefore, first, I will re-analyze the data and complete descriptions and interpretation based on phenomenological ontology of Heidegger. Second, I will examine what ethical problems nurses are facing and what ethical theroies and frameworks nurses are referring in clinical settings in the U.S.