a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 6 September 2013
Revised 7 January 2014
Accepted 11 January 2014
Keywords:
Ethics confidence
Ethics preparedness
Nurse practitioners
Physician assistants
Practice autonomy
Quality of care
Purpose: Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) provide primary care services for many
American patients. Ethical knowledge is foundational to resolving challenging practice issues, yet little is
known about the importance of ethics and work-related factors in the delivery of quality care. The aim of this
study was to quantitatively assess whether the quality of the care that practitioners deliver is influenced by
ethics and work-related factors.
Methods: This paper is a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional self-administered mailed survey of 1,371
primary care NPs and PAs randomly selected from primary care and primary care subspecialties in the
Purpose: Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) provide primary care services for many
American patients. Ethical knowledge is foundational to resolving challenging practice issues, yet little is
known about the importance of ethics and work-related factors in the delivery of quality care. The aim of this
study was to quantitatively assess whether the quality of the care that practitioners deliver is influenced by
ethics and work-related factors.