Background Moral disengagement is a psychological mechanism through which individuals justify ethically compromised behavior. Understanding the experiences of nursing faculty involved in moral disengagement is essential for maintaining educational integrity and ensuring the development of ethically grounded future nurses. Objectives The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of nursing faculty regarding moral disengagement and to examine how nursing faculty experienced moral disengagement as a cognitive strategy used to rationalize compromises in both academic and clinical teaching standards. Methods A hermeneutic phenomenological approach, guided by van Manen’s method, was employed. Twelve (n=12) nursing faculty members from three Palestinian universities located in the West Bank participated in semi-structured interviews conducted between February and June 2025. Participants were selected through purposive sampling based on inclusion criteria of full-time employment and a minimum of two years of teaching experience. Data were analyzed using van Manen’s thematic analysis. Credibility was established through member checking, peer debriefing, and triangulation among researchers. Results The thematic analysis identified four overarching themes: ( 1) subjective weighing of educational responsibilities, (2) justification mechanisms, (3) the gap between public presentation and private practice, and (4) the ‘contagion’ of moral disengagement in academic settings. Conclusions These findings highlight the complexity of moral disengagement among nursing educators within the specific context studied and the potential impact it had on nursing education quality and student development. The study calls for institutional reforms, including ethical workload audits, holistic faculty evaluation systems, and faculty ethics support programs, as well as context-sensitive professional ethics training and multilevel policy interventions in nursing education. Further research across diverse contexts is warranted to enhance transferability of these findings.
Shouli et al. (Thu,) studied this question.