THE EFFECT OF INTENSIVE CARE UNIT NURSES’ ANXIETY LEVELS ON MORAL SENSITIVITY

Abstract

Nurses experience a great deal of stress in their work environment. This quantitative descriptive study was carried out to determine the anxiety levels and the moral sensitivity of nurses working in intensive care units. Data were collected with a personal information form, the Beck Anxiety Inventory and Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire. The data analyses were performed using descriptive statistics, independent group’s t-test, the Mann-Whitney U test, the Kruskal-Wallis test and correlation analysis. It was determined that the nurses’ average total Beck Anxiety Inventory score was 18.65±9.73, average total Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire score was 96.24±24.24. There was no relationship between anxiety and moral sensitivities of nurses (p>0.05). Research results showed that nurses had moderate levels of anxiety and moral sensitivity. With these results it may be recommended to increase in-service training to improve the moral sensitivity of intensive care nurses and to develop improvement policies to reduce their anxiety levels.