20.500.12556/RUP-23121 Nurses’ moral decision-making in practice through Kantian duty ethics Background: Nurses frequently encounter ethical dilemmas, moral distress, and situations in which they must balance professional duties, personal values, and organizational constraints. Deontological ethics, particularly Kant’s ethics of duty, offers a normative framework that emphasizes moral action grounded in duty rather than consequences. However, limited empirical research explores how nurses understand and enact Kantian principles in everyday clinical practice. Research aim: To explore how nurses understand and enact principles of Kant’s ethics of duty in clinical decision-making and how this philosophical framework shapes their moral judgement, sense of duty, and professional integrity. Research design: A qualitative descriptive research design. Participants and research context: Between November and December 2025, 17 nurses were recruited from various clinical settings in Slovenia through purposive sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured in-person interviews focused on moral decision-making, professional duty, moral autonomy, and institutional constraints. Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis approach was employed to analyze the data. Ethical considerations: The study was approved by the university ethics committee. Participation was voluntary and anonymous, and written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Findings: The data analysis developed five major thematic categories: perceptions of the demands and responsibilities of nursing work, understanding of duty and professional ethics, ethical decision-making and moral autonomy, the emotional dimension and humanized nurse–patient relationships, and organizational conditions and systemic ethical challenges. Conclusions: The findings suggest that nurses largely enact Kantian ethics of duty through internalized professional values and commitment to patient dignity. However, organizational and systemic factors significantly limit their capacity for autonomous moral action. Strengthening ethical practice in nursing requires improved working conditions, enhanced professional autonomy, and structured support through ethics education, supervision, and team-based ethical reflection nursing ethics moral decision-making Kantian duty ethics professional autonomy ethical dilemmas etika zdravstvene nege moralno odločanje Kantova etika dolžnosti poklicna avtonomija etične dileme true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Članek v reviji 2026-06-07 16:01:04 2026-06-07 16:01:06 2026-06-08 03:08:04 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 str. 1-15 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova VTisku apc 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2026-05-30 616-083:17 1477-0989 10.1177/09697330261449461 280715267 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09697330261449461 1 30cc4a60-6279-11f1-9e8d-005056ac49c0 https://repozitorij.upr.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=33782 https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330261449461 1 31342e8b-6279-11f1-9e8d-005056ac49c0 https://repozitorij.upr.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=33783 RAZ_Prosen_Mirko_2026.pdf RAZ_Prosen_Mirko_2026.pdf 1 86E0771F036072E26CC0400296A4214A c99066a1e9f5f1781f9e2779bc14c662d06b5d436d55c39bc3e58854ad5248fd 564ebde5-6279-11f1-9e8d-005056ac49c0 https://repozitorij.upr.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=33784 Fakulteta za vede o zdravju 0 0 0