The relationship between ethical sensitivity, caring behavior and quality of care in nurses: A systematic review

In their daily practice, nurses face difficult ethical challenges. To ensure the provision of humane care, it is imperative for nurses to be sensitive to ethical dilemmas. The main objective of this study was to investigate the correlation between ethical sensitivity, caring behavior, and the overall quality of care that is being delivered by nurses.

In accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, we conducted a thorough search of the PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and ProQuest databases to ensure a comprehensive review. Our research focused on analyzing studies that met the inclusion criteria, which included publications from the year 2000 up until the end of August 2024. These studies were selected based on their investigation of the relationship between ethical sensitivity, caring behavior, and the quality of care provided by nurses. The exclusion criteria for this study included not having access to full-text articles, articles written in languages other than Persian and English, protocol studies, case studies, brief reports, reviews, and qualitative studies. The assessment of quality was performed using the JBI tool.

Out of the 2957 records that were retrieved, only 11 studies were ultimately selected and included in this review. Among these included studies, 6 specifically focused on examining the correlation between ethical sensitivity and caring behavior displayed by nurses, while the remaining 5 studies focused on exploring the relationship between ethical sensitivity and the quality of care in nurses. The results of this study discovered that ethical sensitivity has the potential to significantly influence the caring behavior and quality of care provided by nurses.

The quality of nursing care can be influenced by ethical sensitivity; therefore, it is advisable to arrange regular training programs in clinical settings to educate nurses on ethical principles, with the goal of fostering their ethical sensitivity.