Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Nowadays nurses are faced with numerous complex moral conflicts. As a result, doing what one nurse considers as proper can prove contrary to the values and beliefs of other health care providers. The present study was performed to investigate the efficacy of the negotiating style for reducing the severity of moral conflicts in ICU nurses in selected hospitals of Guilan University of Medical Sciences.

This was a semi-experimental single group study with before and after design. For this purpose, 45 nurses working at ICU Wards of Guilan University of Medical Sciences were selected. Data were collected using the Ethical Conflict in Nursing Questionnaire by Falco-Pegueroles (2013). The questionnaire was first completed by each participant. Consequently, a negotiation style educational workshop was held for the nurses with an average or high score. After 8 weeks of intervention, the questionnaire was distributed among the participants one more time. The results were analyzed using SPSS software version 20, t-test and ANOVA to compare the severity of moral conflict in the samples before and after the intervention.

The average severity of the nurses’ moral conflict before the workshop was 53.22. The mean reduction of the severity of moral conflict was 17.66 after 8 weeks, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05).  The results indicated a decrease in the severity of the nurses’ moral conflict following the intervention. Based on the findings of the research, the negotiating style is recommended for the purpose of reducing the severity of moral conflict in ICU nurses.