The relationship between operating room nurses approaches to ethical issues and ethical sensitivity

Objective: The study was conducted to investigate the relationship between operating room nurses' approaches to ethical issues and their ethical sensitivity. Materials and Methods: This study was designed as a diagnostic/correlational study to examine the relationship between operating room nurses' approaches to ethical issues and their ethical sensitivity. It was conducted between November 2023 and November 2024 at Salihli State Hospital, Manisa City Hospital, Merkez Efendi State Hospital, and Manisa Celal Bayar University Hafsa Sultan Medical Faculty Hospital. The study population consisted of nurses (N=148) working in the operating room units of three public hospitals and one university hospital in Manisa province. A total of n=106 nurses who agreed to participate in the study and met the inclusion criteria formed the study sample. Data were collected using the Nurse Sociodemographic Data Form, the Operating Room-Specific Ethical Issues Approach Questionnaire, and the Ethical Sensitivity Questionnaire. SPSS 22.0 software was used to analyze the data. In the analysis of the data, frequency distribution and descriptive statistics were used to describe demographic characteristics. The Skewness-Kurtosis normality test was used to assess the normality of the data distribution. Since the data did not show a normal distribution, the Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test, and Spearman correlation analysis were used. Results: The average score for the Nurses' Approach to Operating Room-Specific Ethical Issues Survey was 13.58±1.67, and the average score for the Nurses' Moral Sensitivity Survey was 92.31±21.03. A significant difference was found between the number of years nurses had worked in the operating room and the average score on the Operating Room-Specific Ethical Issues Approach Survey. A significant relationship was also found between those who had previously received ethics training and their scores on the Moral Sensitivity Survey, specifically in the areas of application and benefit (p<0.05). No statistical difference was found between the operating room-specific ethical issues approach survey and the moral sensitivity survey and its sub-dimensions (p>0.05). Conclusion: No significant difference was found between nurses' sociodemographic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, and educational status and their ethical sensitivity. However, a significant difference was found in terms of years of experience in the operating room and approach to ethical issues. Nurses with 6-10 years of experience in the operating room were found to have higher sensitivity. Keywords: Ethics, Operating room nursing , Moral sensitivity, Ethical approach.