investigating moral sensitivity in decision-making and its relationship with the provision of spiritual care by nurses: a cross-sectional study

Introduction: ethical sensitivity in decision-making is one of the essential characteristics of nurses in providing medical services, which, by emphasizing moral standards and spiritual behavior, plays an effective role in improving and restoring the patients’ health. the present study was conducted to investigate the moral sensitivity of nurses in decision-making and its relationship with the provision of spiritual care by nurses. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted on 302 nurses in namazi hospital in shiraz in 1401 using the convenience sampling method. the data collection tools included a demographic information form, lützen’s moral sensitivity questionnaire, and scale of spirituality and spiritual care. after receiving the ethics code, data collection was done within two months. kruskal-wallis, mann-whitney, and spearman tests were used for data analysis. the collected data were analyzed using spss software (version 22). a p value less than 0.05 was considered significant. results: 302 nurses were analyzed; most of them were women (81.5%) and were under 32 years old. the results showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between moral sensitivity in decision-making and providing spiritual care of nurses (p<0.012). the mean and standard deviation for the nurses’ moral sensitivity and spiritual care were 59.2±13.36 and 56.52±13.49 respectively, both of them being at the average level. conclusion: given the moderate level of moral sensitivity of nurses and the significant relationship between moral sensitivity in decision-making and providing spiritual care, it is suggested that managers should improve moral sensitivity skills by monitoring and developing appropriate training programs to increase moral sensitivity.