Ethics are integral to nursing education programs and nursing practice. All nurses and prospective nurses should adhere to the highest ethical behavior standards. Ethical practices in nursing education ensure that students acquire quality education that equips them with the necessary skills for competent nursing practice by adhering to the set rules and regulations and accreditation standards (Taghadosi, Valiee & Aghajani, 2021). Ethical behavior in nursing practice ensures that nurses navigate complex moral dilemmas, provide safe and effective care, and uphold patients’ interests. Ethical practice also maintains the nursing profession's integrity, promoting trust between practitioners and patients. Therefore, nursing Master’s program students and nurses should uphold ethical behavior and practices.

Unethical behaviors in nursing Master’s programs and nursing practice take different forms. However, they are similar because they undermine patient care. An example of unethical behavior in a nursing Master’s program includes fabricating research data where students make up or falsify research project data (Kang & Hwang, 2020). Students create fake research data, alter existing data, or modify results. Fabricating research data is an unethical practice that undermines the nursing program's credibility and the research process's integrity. The practice has dire consequences on the students because it makes them fail the research project and leads to expulsion. It also dents the nursing profession's reputation and integrity. Fabricated data and subsequent recommendations also undermine the provision of safe care when published or used in evidence-based practice that relies on research evidence to advance patient care.

An example of unethical behavior in nursing practice includes discriminating against patients based on protected characteristics like race, ethnicity, religion, and cultural beliefs, among others. Nurses demonstrate discriminative behavior by denying such people healthcare services, being disrespectful towards them, providing poor services, or making negative and derogatory remarks about the affected patients (Rafii, Ghezeljeh & Nasrollah, 2019). Discrimination has adverse consequences on nurse practitioners because it exposes them to disciplinary actions, loss of practice license, penalties, and lawsuits. It also undermines the provision of safe patient care. In addition, it exposes patients to physical and psychological torture and hinders access to care. Patients also lose trust in the healthcare system, further hindering access to quality care.

The discussion shows that unethical behavior adversely affects nurses and students and undermines the provision of safe patient care. Therefore, nursing Master’s program students and nurse practitioners should uphold ethical conduct to uphold the profession’s integrity and reputation and advance patient care.