EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEDIATRIC NURSES’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND MORAL INTELLIGENCE LEVELS

Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationship between the moral intelligence levels of nurses working in pediatric clinics and their perspectives on ethical principles. Method: This study was cross-sectional and descriptive-correlational. The data for the study were provided by nurses working in pediatric clinics of two public and two private hospitals in Istanbul between October and December 2022. There were 140 pediatric nurses in the study’s sample. The Yakut-Moral Intelligence Scale, the Ethical Principles Attitude Scale, and the Descriptive Characteristics Form were used as data collection tools. Results: The overall Ethical Principles Attitude Scale score ranged from 35 to 175 with a mean of 142.26±18.18. The average Moral Intelligence score fell between 20 and 100, with a mean of 78.53±10.15. It was found that there was a positive but low correlation between the total mean scores of the Yakut-Moral Intelligence Scale and the Ethical Principles Attitude Scale (p