Huan Chen

Background Nursing ethical decision-making ability is a core competency of nurses. However, no tool has been developed to measure the ethical decision-making ability of nurses in China. Therefore, we aimed to develop a nursing ethical decision-making ability scale (EDMAS) and assess its validity and reliability. Methods A literature review, qualitative study, and the Delphi method were employed to identify the most common ethical dilemmas and original scale items. A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the items. The reliability and validity of the scale were evaluated. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed to investigate the factor structure based on data from group 1 (N = 404). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to assess the construct validity based on the data from group 2 (N = 503). Convergent validity was evaluated using composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE). Discriminant validity was assessed by analyzing the maximum shared variance (MSV). We invited 15 experts to evaluate the content validity of the EDMAS. This study was conducted between December 2021 and January 2023. Results We defined 4 nursing ethical dilemmas and 71 original items. We deleted 4 items during the screening process. Additionally, 3 items were deleted from the EFA. The EFA revealed that the EDMAS with 64 items had a four-factor structure (ethical sensitivity, motivation, judgment, and action), accounting for 56.05% of the total variance. The CFA revealed that χ 2 /df = 1.291, RMSEA = 0.024, CFI = 0.976, TLI = 0.974, NFI = 0.902, and IFI = 0.976. The CR values were between 0.945 and 0.964. The AVE values were between 0.583 and 0.588. The MSV values were between 0.533 and 0.572. The value of I-CVI varied from 0.867 to 1.000, and the S-CVI/Ave was 0.965. The Cronbach’s of the scale was 0.982. The test–retest reliability of the EDMAS was 0.982. Conclusion EDMAS is a reliable and valid tool for evaluating nurses’ ethical decision-making ability and enhancing its ability through ethics training programs.

While leaders’ high performance expectations (LHPEs) are often considered and proposed as an effective performance management tool, this viewpoint may be insufficient because it solely considers the performance gains without addressing potential ethical costs. This study deviates from previous beliefs by demonstrating how leaders’ high performance expectations are divergently related to employee performance as well as prescriptive immorality (e.g., performance-improving noncompliant behavior, PINB) and prescriptive morality (e.g., organizational citizenship behavior, OCB). Drawing on goal-shielding theory, we propose an integrated model in which LHPE improves employee work performance by prompting them to prioritize performance goals. This same mechanism, however, elevates PINB and reduces OCB, with these effects being more pronounced in highly competitive team climates. The multilevel path analyses of a three-wave, time-lagged survey dataset containing 232 employees and their leaders from 59 teams supported our hypotheses. These findings highlight both the performance benefits and ethical costs associated with LHPE, underscoring the importance of managers balancing performance demands with ethical considerations when employing LHPE as a performance management strategy.

Replication protein A (RPA) is the main eukaryotic single‐stranded DNA (ssDNA) binding protein, having essential roles in all DNA metabolic reactions involving ssDNA. RPA binds ssDNA with high affinity, thereby preventing the formation of secondary structures and protecting ssDNA from the action of nucleases, and directly interacts with other DNA processing proteins. Here, we discuss recent results supporting the idea that one function of RPA is to prevent annealing between short repeats that can lead to chromosome rearrangements by microhomology‐mediated end joining or the formation of hairpin structures that are substrates for structure‐selective nucleases. We suggest that replication fork catastrophe caused by depletion of RPA could result from cleavage of secondary structures by nucleases, and that failure to cleave hairpin structures formed at DNA ends could lead to gene amplification. These studies highlight the important role RPA plays in maintaining genome integrity.