Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Nursing is an ethical profession and nurses are responsible for patient care. In providing healthcare services, patient right is an important issue to consider. However, not only the awareness the patient right is important but also moral sensitivity to ethical decision-making is crucial. This study aimed to determine the relationship between moral sensibility and attitude towards patients' rights. A descriptive-analytic study was used and 194 nurses working in intensive care units in hospitals affiliated to medical university of South Khorasan province were selected by convenience sampling method. The data collected through a questionnaire consisting of three parts: 1) demographics 2) the moral sensitivity questionnaire (Korean version), and 3) a questionnaire survey of nurses' attitudes towards the patients’ rights. Data collected by the software SPSS version 16, and were analyzed descriptive and analytical statistical tests.

The results showed that there is a significant direct relationship between average moral sensibility and nurses' attitudes towards patients’ rights (r= 0.6, P=0.03). The average nurse's ethical sensitivity has been reported 3.05±0.68 0f the total score (0-4). The average attitude towards the patients’ rights was 4 ± 0.8 of the total score (1-5). The relationship between moral sensitivity whit the years of service and age of the participants was significant (P<0.05). There was also a significant relationship between the attitudes of nurses towards patients' rights with gender and years of service (P<0.05). In conclusion it is necessary to provide more moral education to increase nurse’s moral sensitivity towards patients’ rights. It should be noted that due to the fact that moral sensitivity and attitude towards patients' rights increases with the number of years of service the article suggests that considering more experienced nurses in the teams would result a more morally sensitive care for the patients.