Luppo Kuillman

Chapter 3 62 THE STUDY Aims This study has two aims: 1) to examine whether there are relationships between moral reasoning and the personality meta-traits Stability and Plasticity; and 2) to assess whether the propensity to morally disengage explains these relationships. The practical relevance of testing the measurement model (Figure 1) in this study lies in the fact that moral reasoning is not a singular event in the ethical decision-making process. If indeed personality traits and mechanisms of moral disengagement are, respectively, influencing and intervening variables, this might have implications for the selection and training of healthcare professionals. Study design and participants A cross-sectional approach was used including self-report questionnaires. We recruited 155 nurse practitioners and physician assistants from five PA programs and one NP program in the Netherlands. Procedure The program administrators of these six programs sent their alumni an information letter about this study. By activating a hyperlink to a web-based system in this letter, each respondent could: (a) indicate that he or she was informed about the aim and method of the study; and (b) agree to the use of their e-mail address. Agreeing to participate was considered informed consent. Afterwards, they each received the access key to the web-based set of questionnaires. A total of 294 subjects were willing to participate: 176 PAs and 118 NPs. Data collection was between January - March 2015. By the closure of the online survey, 88 PAs and 67 NPs had completed all the questionnaires. Since no data were received from the remaining 139 respondents, we acquired no information from them that could be used to test for selection bias. Ethical considerations According to the statement by the Central Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects (www.ccmo.nl) , no internal review board approval was warranted for this type of survey study among volunteer professionals. An information letter sent to all respondents informed them about: a) the purpose of the study; b) the