Correlation of Moral Courage and Organizational Commitment in Operating Room Nurses

Objective: Moral courage distinguishes real moralists from hypocrites and indicates the commitment of nurses to their patients. Organizational commitment can also influence this commitment. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the correlation between moral courage and organizational commitment of operating room nurses working in the teaching hospitals of Arak University of Medical Sciences.Methods: This cross-sectional correlational study was conducted on 136 operating room nurses who were selected using the convenience sampling method. The required data were collected through demographic information form, the organizational commitment questionnaire of Allen and Myer, and the professional moral courage scale by Sekerka and colleagues. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 21) for descriptive and correlational analyses.Results: The mean scores of moral courage and organizational commitment of operating room nurses were 62.5±6.5 and 101.86±13.7, respectively. Moreover, moral courage did not have a statistically significant relationship with organizational commitment (P>0.05). The moral courage and organizational commitment of the participants differed significantly in terms of their type of employment (P<0.05) and age (P<0.05), respectively.Conclusion: Given the high mean score of moral courage and organizational commitment in operating room nurses, it can be said that nurses tend to show moral behaviors. On the other hand, the low score of the endurance of threat indicates that operating room nurses do not receive the necessary support from the organization for their courageous behavior. Therefore, the support of senior managers is essential for the occurrence of such behaviors.