Effect of a Moral Empowerment Program on Nurses' Moral Courage

Abstract Background: Moral courage requires professional knowledge, skills and awareness of values and principles of nursing ethics. One of the important factors affecting nurses' moral courage is nurses' moral empowerment. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of a professional ethics empowerment program on nurses' courageous behavior. Methods: This study is a quasi-experiment with two groups (before and after) conducted in 2021. First, moral courage of 187 nurses was determined by nurses' moral courage questionnaire by Sadooghiasl et al. 52 nurses whose moral courage score was lower than the average score of the questionnaire were randomly assigned to two control and intervention groups (n=26). In the intervention group, the professional ethics empowerment program was implemented during four two-hour sessions, and the control group received no training. The objectives of the study were explained to the participants and they entered the study if they wished and the written informed consent was obtained. Results: In the pre-test, no statistically significant difference was observed in the moral courage of nurses and its dimensions between the two intervention and control groups. Nevertheless, in the post-test, a significant difference was in the average scores of moral courage between the two groups, and the implementation of the moral empowerment program in the intervention group led to a significant increase in the moral courage of nurses. Conclusion: Empowering nurses by educational programs using learner-based approaches and group discussion of nurses' moral issues in the clinical setting is effective on improving their moral courage. In order to improve the moral courage of nurses, it is necessary to use diverse and innovative educational methods based on the experiences of nurses in their in-service training programs.