Background:

Ethical problems often emerge in nursing practice. Knowing how to identify them and seeking prudent solutions is essential to promoting ethical and safe care.

Objective:

To know the experiences and understanding of nursing students and professionals regarding ethical issues and decision-making in hospital nursing practice.

Methodology:

Qualitative, exploratory-descriptive research was carried out with thirty undergraduate nursing students and twenty nursing professionals from a University Hospital in Southern Brazil. Data were collected through two questionnaires containing open questions and submitted to Discursive Textual Analysis.

Results:

Students perceive the ethical problem based on concrete experiences of disrespect and insult to principles and rules. Professionals conceptualize it as a challenge to judgment in the complex boundaries between right and wrong. The experiences and decision-making share similarities and have their specificities.

Conclusion:

Students and professionals display moral sensitivity to understand the ethical problems of practice; critical awareness and reflection are crucial to identifying and responding to workplace ethical conflicts.

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