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Background: Ethics communication has been described as a pedagogical form, promoting development of ethical competence among nursing students. The ‘one to five method’ was developed by this research group as a tool for facilitating ethical communication in groups among healthcare professionals but has not yet been evaluated.

Aim: To explore post-graduate nursing students’ experiences of practicing ethical communication in groups.

Research design: The study design is qualitative.

Participants and research context: The study comprised 12 nursing students on a post-graduate course for Registered Nurses focusing on palliative care. After education the students engaged as participants and facilitators in ethics communication in groups, with support from the ‘one to five method’. Data were derived from the students written reflections and subjected to thematic analysis.

Ethical considerations: The study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards in the 2013 Helsinki Declaration and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty at Umeå University.

Results: An overall theme was identified, ‘being supported to achieve a democratic dialogue concerning ethical problems’ and five themes, related to each step of the ‘one to five method’. The themes concerned: putting the experience of an ethical dilemma into words; being confirmed by shared emotions; defining the value conflict using ethical principles; expressing virtues of empathy and raised awareness; jointly finding various action approaches.

Discussion: Regular ethics communication in groups encourages nursing students to actively seek understanding and clarification of ethically difficult situations.

Conclusions: The results indicate that ethics communication in groups could be a way of developing virtues during education. Interventions using the ‘one to five method’ need to be further studied among student groups from other healthcare contexts.