Professional values and ethical sensitivities of nurses in COVID-19 pandemic

Nurses are facing several ethical problems like the safety of the nurses, patients, co-workers, and families, allocation of scarce resources, and the changing nature of the relationships of nurses with patients and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. These have caused nurses to have feelings such as stigmatization, fear, anger, anxiety, uncertainty, work-related strain, and burnout. Identifying nurses' ethical sensitivities and professional values are highly important to ensure that nurses are placed in the right decision-making position. This descriptive correlational study was carried out to evaluate the professional values and ethical sensitivities of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A quantitative descriptive and correlational study was performed with 245 nurses in Turkey. The "personal information form," the "nurses professional values scale-revised (NPVS-R)," and the "moral sensitivity questionnaire (MSQ)" were employed for data collection.

The nurses' 52.7% reported facing an ethical dilemma. Also, 40.3% of the nurses who had an ethical dilemma during the pandemic failed to solve it. The mean NPVS-R scores of the nurses had statistically significant negative correlations with mean scores of the overall MSQ and its autonomy, benefit, integrative approach, and orientation subscales (p < .05). The nursing staff had high levels of professional values and moral sensitivities.

Professional value perceptions were enhanced, and moral sensitivities were improved. Age and professional experience were identified as factors that affected the professional value perceptions and moral sensitivities of the nurses. The results will form the basis for future studies and contribute to the resolution of ethical dilemmas experienced by nurses.