Investigating the effect of reflective learning based on clinical scenarios on the moral sensitivity of nursing students

Nurses face many ethical challenges in providing care to patients. Scenario-based  learning along  with the use of  reflection can be an interactive, dynamic, and expansive learning strategy in ethics education that enhances students' decision-making skills and self-learning abilities. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of reflective learning based on clinical scenarios on students' moral sensitivity in the course of professional communication and nursing ethics.

This study was a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test single group study that was performed on nursing students of Fasa University of Medical Sciences during the academic year of 2018-2019 in three stages of design, implementation and evaluation to assess students' moral sensitivity. In this study, all second semester nursing students including 48 people participated in the study. To collect data, the Persian version of the Lutzen Ethical Sensitivity Questionnaire (2006) was used. Data were analyzed in SPSS software version 21 at the level of descriptive and analytical statistics (paired t).

In this study, there was no significant difference between the mean of the total score of moral sensitivity before and after the intervention (p value> 0.05). Also, the results of paired t-test did not show a significant difference before and after the educational intervention in the subscales of moral sensitivity (Sense Of Moral Burden,  Moral Strength, Moral Responsibility) (p value> 0.05).

The present study, considering the non-significant difference between students 'moral sensitivity scores before and after the intervention, suggests that despite the place of reflective activities in the development of students' learning, especially in Western studies, and also applying such new approaches, especially by considering different cultural pedagogies, can take on more complex dimensions in order to be effective. Therefore, further studies on the effectiveness and dimensions of using reflection activities in ethics education are recommended to undergraduate nursing students in Iran.