Moral Sensitivity, Empathy and Prosocial Behavior: Implications for Humanization of Nursing Care

Abstract

Humanization of nursing is related to certain social and moral variables. Moral sensitivity, empathy, and prosocial behavior help understand a situation and make decisions that benefit the patient. The objective of this study is to find out how these variables are related, and define the differences in moral sensitivity, empathy, and prosocial behavior in humanization of nursing. We also analyzed the mediating role of empathy in the relationship between moral sensitivity and prosocial behavior. The sample was made up of 330 Spanish nurses aged 22 to 56, who completed the HUMAS Scale and adapted versions of the Basic Empathy Scale, the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire, and the Prosocial Behavior Scale. Descriptive analyses, bivariate correlations and multiple mediation models were calculated. The results found significantly different mean scores between all the groups in responsibility and moral strength, cognitive empathy, and prosocial behavior, and in moral burden, the differences were in the high-humanization-score group compared to the low-score group. Furthermore, the mediation models showed the mediating effect of cognitive empathy between the responsibility, strength, and moral burden factors on prosocial behavior, but not of affective empathy. The study concluded that humanization in nursing is closely related to moral sensitivity, cognitive empathy, and prosocial behavior. This facilitates a helping, caring, and understanding attitude toward patient needs, but without the affective flooding that affective empathy can lead to.

Structural Equation Modeling of Person-Centered Nursing in Hospital Nurses

“…In this study, increased empathy was associated with greater levels of nursing competency, interpersonal relationship ability, and moral sensitivity, which is consistent with the findings of previous research [ 29 , 64 , 65 , 66 ]. Empathy is a vital component of inter-personal relationships and care processes [ 67 , 68 ] and can be facilitated through training interventions [ 69 , 70 ].…”

The Role of Emotional and Cognitive Empathy, Moral Metacognition and Quality of Life in Predicting Moral Behavior of Nurses

“…Considering the role and importance of moral behavior of nurses in organizational effectiveness, patients' satisfaction with the hospital and their success and job performance, this study was conducted to determine the role of emotional and cognitive empathy, moral metacognition and quality of life in predicting moral behavior of nurses. Findings showed that emotional and cognitive empathy had a positive and significant relationship with moral behavior of nurses, which was consistent with the results of previous studies (6,(9)(10)(11). In explaining these results, it can be said that empathy plays a motivating role in moral behaviors in interpersonal situations.…”

“…The four factors influencing ethical behaviors include moral sensitivity (interpreting situations and being aware of ethical challenges), moral judgment (ability to recognize and find different solutions to ethical challenges), moral motivation (having a willingness and commitment to ethical behaviors), and moral personality (insistence on doing moral behaviors) (5). One of the factors related to moral behavior is emotional and cognitive empathy, which is an important concept in the context of social interactions (6). Empathy as a complex and multidimensional concept means the ability to understand others and experience their feelings and cognitions and provide appropriate responses to them, which plays an important role in performing social and moral behaviors (7).…”

“…Emotional empathy means providing emotional response to the emotional responses of others and creating an emotional reciprocal relationship with them, and cognitive empathy means understanding and recognizing the mental and psychological states and views of others (8). The results showed that empathy had a positive and significant relationship with moral sensitivity and trans-social behaviors (6). In another study, it was found that empathy and moral behavior had a complex and significant relationship (9).…”

Nursing students' motivational and self‐regulated learning during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A cross‐sectional study

“…The development of ethical decision‐making in clinical education improves the quality of nursing care based on best practice and scientific learning (Amiri et al, 2019 ). Thus, nurses and prospective nurses must be equipped with high moral sensitivity (Liaschenko & Peter, 2004 ; Suazo et al, 2020 ), along with the competence to advocate for patients' rights and dignity.…”