Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Dec 18;24(1):1487.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-06440-9.

The relationship between academic motivation and moral sensitivity in nursing students

Parisa Nezhadhoseini  1 , Seyed Kazem Mousavi  2 , Ali Javadzadeh  3
Affiliations

The relationship between academic motivation and moral sensitivity in nursing students

Parisa Nezhadhoseini et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: A Bachelor's degree in nursing is one of the most challenging programs in the field of medical sciences. As a result, maintaining students' academic motivation at the desired level is a constant concern for policymakers and educational administrators. Furthermore, tackling complex ethical dilemmas is inherent in nursing, making the educational period an important moment to instill moral sensitivity and reinforce professional ethics in students. This study aimed to investigate the association between academic motivation and moral sensitivity among undergraduate nursing students.

Methods: In this descriptive-correlational study, 265 undergraduate nursing students from the Abhar School of Nursing at Zanjan University of Medical Sciences in Iran were chosen using a census approach in 2024. The data collection tools included demographic surveys, the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS), and the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire (MSQ), all completed online. The data were analyzed with SPSS version 16 software, which used descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression) with a significance level of 0.05.

Results: Nursing students had average academic motivation and moral sensitivity ratings of 79.24 ± 14.05 and 121.12 ± 16.33, respectively. Furthermore, a significant relationship was found between the overall scores and all dimensions of academic motivation and moral sensitivity (p < 0.001). Additionally, 29.1% of the variance in moral sensitivity was explained by the dimensions of the student's academic motivation.

Conclusion: This study's findings revealed a link between academic motivation and moral sensitivity among nursing students. As a result, it is advised that levels of academic motivation be continually checked during the program. This will assist in identifying students at danger of losing motivation and allow for the development and execution of effective initiatives to improve their academic engagement.

Keywords: Morals; Motivation; Nursing; Students.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Permission to conduct the present study was obtained from the Research Department and Ethics Committee of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences (IR.ZUMS.REC.1402.095. available at: https://ethics.research.ac.ir/ ). All the study participants were informed about the objectives of the study, the confidentiality of the information, and the voluntary nature of their participation, and all students completed the informed consent form. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

References

    1. Amiri E, Ebrahimi H, Vahidi M, Asghari Jafarabadi M, Namdar Areshtanab H. Relationship between nurses’ moral sensitivity and the quality of care. Nurs Ethics. 2019;26(4):1265–73. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cheraghi R, Valizadeh L, Zamanzadeh V, Hassankhani H, Jafarzadeh A. Clarification of ethical principle of the beneficence in nursing care: an integrative review. BMC Nurs. 2023;22(1):1–9. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Seo H, Kim K. Factors influencing public health nurses’ ethical sensitivity during the pandemic. Nurs Ethics. 2022;29(4):858–71. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Iménez-Herrera MF, Font-Jimenez I, Bazo-Hernández L, Roldán-Merino J, Biurrun-Garrido A, Hurtado-Pardos B. Moral sensitivity of nursing students. Adaptation and validation of the moral sensitivity questionnaire in Spain. PLoS ONE. 2022;17(6):e0270049. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lützén K, Dahlqvist V, Eriksson S, Norberg A. Developing the concept of moral sensitivity in health care practice. Nurs Ethics. 2006;13(2):187–96. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources