Moral courage approach-based ethics education effect on clinical decision making of emergency nurses.

Abstract

Background: Nurses require moral courage to make appropriate decisions. Ethics education can enhance moral courage and boost the nurses' clinical decision-making potential. This study aimed to outline the impact of ethics education focusing on moral courage on the clinical decision-making of emergency nurses.

Materials and methods: A semi-experimental study before and after the intervention with 40 nurses selected by purposive sampling method from two hospitals of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in two intervention groups (20 participants) and control (20 participants). Demographic questionnaires, Sekarka's moral courage, and Lori's clinical decision-making questionnaires were administered to emergency department nurses on two occasions. The intervention group received training on moral principles with the perspective of moral courage through lectures, film screenings, and group discussions. The sample volume was calculated using G-Power software. ANOVA was used to analyze the data.

Results: The pretest score of moral courage was 72.30 ± 10.95 in the control group and 71.75 ± 5.99 in the intervention group. One-way ANCOVA-derived results showed a significant difference between the two groups in terms of the posttest scores of moral courage (P < 0.05, F = 38.805) and clinical decision-making (P < 0.05, F = 45.278).

Conclusion: Ethics education focusing on moral courage can enhance nurses' moral courage and improve their clinical decision-making potential. Therefore, nurses are suggested to promote their moral courage through various methods such as participation in moral courage-oriented training courses.