Investigating the relationship between moral intelligence and attitudes toward patient safety among nurses working in a teaching hospital of Dezful in 2021

Moral intelligence has special importance among nurses considering human and moral nature of their profession. Moral intelligence can provide a framework for the proper functioning of human beings and is considered as a predictor of behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between moral intelligence and attitude toward patient safety among nurses working in Dezful teaching hospital in 2021.

This was a cross-sectional study. The statistical population included 200 nurses working in Ganjavian teaching hospital of Dezful in 2021 and participants were selected by convenience sampling method. Data collection instruments included demographic characteristics questionnaire, Lennick's & Kiel's Moral Intelligence Questionnaire and the Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ). Data analysis was carried out using descriptive and analytical statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis in SPSS ver. 21 and P-value<0.05 was considered as the significance level.

The results showed that, 73% of 200 nurses were female and 27% were male. The mean± SD of nurses' moral intelligence and attitude towards patient safety was 156.21±24.19 and 107.05±15.53, respectively. The results of Pearson correlation coefficient showed a positive and significant correlation between all dimensions of moral intelligence and nurses' attitudes toward patient safety (r=0.431, p<0.0001). The results of regression test showed that moral intelligence plays a role in explaining the variable of nurses' attitudes toward patient safety (R2 = 0.185).

Moral intelligence plays a role in predicting nurses 'attitudes toward patients' safety. Therefore, it seems that nurses 'attitudes toward patients' safety can be improved by increasing moral intelligence through training workshops.