Predictive Value of Moral Sensitivity for Quality of Care Among Iranian Nurses

Background: Morality is an important factor affecting the quality of care. To provide high-quality patient care, nurses are facing a number of ethical problems that need moral skills to be solved. Moral sensitivity is the first logical step toward ethical decision-making and judgment. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the predictive value of moral sensitivity for the quality of care delivered by Iranian nurses. Methods: This cross-sectional study was undertaken on 250 nurses who were selected by census sampling based on inclusion and exclusion criteria from selected hospitals in Qazvin, Iran, in 2022. The required data were gathered by the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire (MSQ) and the Quality Patient Care Scale (QUALPAC). Data were analyzed using a multivariate regression model. Results: The mean age of the nurses was 32.62 ± 6.95 years old, ranging from 22 to 54 years. The quality of care from the viewpoint of most nurses (n = 198, 78.0%) was desirable. The highest quality of care was related to the physical dimension (69.56 ± 8.48), and the least was related to the psychosocial dimension (89.74 ± 9.47). The highest moral sensitivity was related to the dimensions of relational orientation (15.03 ± 2.93) and respect for the patient's autonomy (7.88 ± 1.73). The results also revealed that moral sensitivity (β = 0.43, P < 0.001), gender (β = 0.30, P < 0.001), and economic status (β = -0.17, P = 0.003) were the most significant predictors of the quality of nursing care. Conclusions: Our results highlighted that boosting moral sensitivity among nurses could be effective in improving the quality of nursing care. So, it is recommended to hold periodic training programs to teach ethical principles to nurses to promote their moral sensitivity and, therefore, the quality of patient care.