The impact of nurses' ethical perceptions and sensitivities on care behaviors in internal medicine services

Background: Ethical decision making is a complex process in health and nursing care. Whenever nurses make ethical decisions, they also have to consider what benefits the patient. Some studies have shown that nurses' ethical perceptions and sensitivities directly affect quality of health care. Aim: This study aimed to assess the impact of internal medicine nurses' ethical perceptions and sensitivities on the quality of care. Methods: The sample of this analytical cross-sectional study consisted of two hundred nurses (n = 200) from internal medicine clinics of a university hospital (in Turkey). Data collection tools used to collect the data were a Nurse Information Form, the Caring Behaviors Inventory-24 (CBI-24), the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire (MSQ), and the Hospital Ethical Climate Survey (HECS). Data were analyzed with percentages, the Mann-Whitney U test, and correlation analysis. Results: A significant negative correlation was found between the total score of the CBI-24 (r = -0.152, p < 0.005) and the total score of the MSQ. A significant positive correlation (p < 0.05) was found between all subscale and total scores of the BDI-24 and all subscale and total scores of the HECS. There was no statistically significant correlation between HECS and MSQ (p > 0.05).