The relationship between moral courage and providing safe care in nurses: A cross-sectional study

Moral courage is one of the moral virtues, which can have a great impact on the provision of safe care for patients. Providing safe care is one of the most significant and fundamental principles of healthcare. This study aimed to determine the relationship between moral courage and safe care among nurses and explain the factors predicting safe care.

This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 172 nurses who worked in selected hospitals affiliated with the Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2019. For this purpose, self-report questionnaires on moral courage and safe nursing care were used. The collected data were analyzed in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 using descriptive (mean, standard deviation, percentage, and frequency) and inferential (Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression) statistics. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Mean scores of nurses' moral courage and safe care were desirable (407.57 ± 53.97) and satisfactory (311.31 ± 39.48), respectively. There was a significant correlation between the scores of nursing safe care and moral courage (r = 0.69, P < 0.001). Moral courage, gender, and work experience explained 54% of the variance of nursing safe care.

The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between safety care and moral courage. It seems that increasing nurses' awareness of ethical principles leads to their courageous ethical behaviors, and safety and high-quality care should be one of the goals of all healthcare professionals. Also, the results of this study support the need to improve the knowledge and awareness of nurses and nurse managers regarding the importance of moral courage in providing safe nursing care and improving patient safety.