Nurses' Moral Intelligence in a Selected Military Hospital. A Descriptive-Analytical Study

Ethics is an inseparable part of nursing duties body   and one of the most important factors influencing human behavior. In fact, ethics can be considered as one of the main factors in promoting  respect of patient' rights.
 

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ethical intelligence of nurses working in general and  intensive care units in Tehran's selected military hospital.

This descriptive-analytical study was  performed from  July until  November 2018.The study was conducted on 120 out of 1,200 nurses working in the hospital who were selected based on the Morgan sample size table and allocated to the general and intensive care units, 40 of which were in the intensive care unit and 80 in the internal and surgical units. Ethical intelligence of the samples was measured using the Lenik and Kiel moral intelligence questionnaire and then analyzed using SPSS 20 software.

The inclusion criteria were at least one year of  job experience, at least a bachelor's degree in nursing and  aged  22 to 50 years. The samples consisted of 56 females and 64 males, of which 107 were married and 13 single, 12 had a master's degree and 108  bachelor's degree. The mean and standard deviation of nurses' moral intelligence was 75.25 (SD=8.47) and in general wards was 73.26 (SD=9.87) and in intensive care unit nurses was 77.25 (SD=7.07). The highest level among the four criteria of nurses' moral intelligence was honesty in the general and intensive care units with a mean of 79.62 (SD=11.22) which in the general unit 79.00 (SD=10.32) and in intensive care unit  80.25 (SD=12.12).The results showed that 77.5% of nurses were in good and higher level of moral intelligence.

The results indicate the importance and place of ethical teaching in nursing. The nurse's attitude  towards the patient, herself and her job can promote this profession. Therefore, today acquiring ethical knowledge and the ability to cultivate nurses' moral intelligence is one of the essentials in this profession. It is recommended to provide appropriate ethics training for nurses in the form of in-service courses. due to the difference in the nurses moral intelligence in the general and intensive care units, which indicates hospital managers pay more attention to the intensive care units, so managers need to have the same sensitivity and attention to general units as to intensive care units.