The relationship between nurses' ethical sensitivity and patient advocacy levels

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between nurses' ethical sensitivity and patient advocacy levels. Descriptive type study was conducted with 190 nurses working at Isparta City Hospital between 12th December 2022-30th January 2023. The data of the study were collected by using the Nurse Information Form, the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire and the Patient Advocacy Scale For Nurses. In the analysis of the data, number, percentage, average, standard deviation, T-Test in independent groups, One Way Anova, Kruskall Wallis, Pearson Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used. The significance level was determined as p<0.05. Prior to the research, ethics committee approval, institution permission and informed consent were obtained from the participants. It was found that the average age of the nurses participating in the study was 36.74±8.71 years, 79.5% were women, 75.3% were university graduates, 77.9% were married and 66.3% worked in internal clinics. The average score of the Nurses' Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire was found to be 81.24±26.30, and the average score of the Patient Advocacy Scale for Nurses was 169.36±19.85. A significant relationship was found between the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire and the Patient Advocacy Scale for Nurses at a Decently negative level (r=-0.472, p=0.000). It was determined that the level of education, weekly working time and ethical sensitivity predicted the patient advocacy level and the disclosure rate was 31%. As a result of this study, it was found that nurses' ethical sensitivity and patient advocacy levels are high, and patient advocacy increases as ethical sensitivity increases. It has been found that the level of education, weekly working time and ethical sensitivity predict patient advocacy. In line with these results, it is recommended to organize in-service trainings for nurses related to ethics and patient advocacy.