The Relationship between Nurses’ Moral Sensitivity and Patients’ Satisfaction with the Care Received in the Medical Wards

Abstract

<jats:p>Introduction: The quality of care affects patients’ satisfaction. To provide high quality care, nurses face ethical challenges in daily practice. Moral sensitivity is the first phase in moral implementation. This study aimed to determine the relationship between nurses’ moral sensitivity and patients’ satisfaction in medical wards. Methods: In descriptive correlational study 198 nurses and 198 patients in 17 medical wards filled out the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire (MSQ) and Patient Satisfaction with Nursing Care Quality Questionnaire (PSNCQQ), respectively. Nurses were sampled by the census method. For each nurse, a patient was selected randomly from the same ward. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 13. Results: The highest scores were in the dimensions of “relational orientation” and “following the rules”, and the lowest scores were in the dimensions of “autonomy” and “experiencing moral conflicts”. The highest level of patients’ satisfaction was with “nurses’ professional performance” 3.98 (1.09), and the lowest level was with “nurses’ routine work” 2.69 (1.22). There was no significant relationship between the mean of patient satisfaction and moral sensitivity of nurses. Conclusion: Considering that nurses had a higher score in dimension of “following the rules” and a lower score in dimension of “autonomy”, it seems ethical performance in the real situation is not merely due to the nurses’ moral sensitivity and it seems the complexity of the organization causes nurses face difficulties in making decisions related to clinical practice; therefore, policy makers in the health system should be able to identify barriers.</jats:p>

Effect of Ethics Seminar on Moral Sensitivity and Ethical Behavior of Clinical Nurses

“…This finding implies that ethics seminars can lower the risk of unethical behavior among clinical nurses. Just as higher moral sensitivity strengthened moral judgment and decreased unethical nursing practices [ 21 ], a decrease in unethical behavior suggests enhanced moral sensitivity. Therefore, an ethics seminar similar to that used in this study may be an opportunity for participants to reflect on unethical behavior by contemplating ethical issues encountered in clinical situations.…”

Electrophysiological Markers of Fairness and Selfishness Revealed by a Combination of Dictator and Ultimatum Games

“…Despite the evidence of altruistic tendencies in the Iranian people, such as willingness to pay for health services [89], organ donation [90], blood donation [91], moral sensitivity of nurses [92,93], the identification of the mechanisms associated with the perception of fairness has never been carefully investigated. Our results show that despite spitefulness seemed to prevail over fairness, we have indeed observed a sizable sample of participants expressing costly/altruistic punishment and a tendency to altruistic behavior.…”

Does heavy mental workload affect moral sensitivity among critical care unit nursing professionals? a cross-sectional study

“…The special conditions of the patients admitted to these units highlight the importance of moral decision-making in patient care [ 3 ]. Ethical sensitivity plays an important role in the ability to make moral decisions and is defined as the ability and capacity of individuals to make moral decisions [ 4 ].…”

“…Research suggests that nursing professionals with higher moral sensitivity, in general, deliver higher quality of clinical care and have more respectful professional interactions with their colleagues [ 4 ].…”