Mediating effect of moral sensitivity on the relationship between nursing professionalism and ethical decision-making confidence in nursing students

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to confirm the relationship between nursing students’ nursing professionalism and ethical decision-making confidence, and to clarify the mediating effect of moral sensitivity which has a mutual influence on nursing professionalism and ethical decision-making confidence.Methods: The data collection for this study was conducted from January 23 to February 1, 2021 with junior and senior nursing students enrolled in five nursing departments in two regions. The data collected in this study were analyzed using the IBM SPSS statistics version 23.0 program.Results: Through this study, it was found that nursing professionalism (β=.47) and moral sensitivity (β=.32) acted as important influencing factors on the ethical decision-making confidence of nursing students, with an explanatory power of 31.2%. In addition, it was confirmed that there was a partial mediating effect of moral sensitivity in the relationship between the nursing professionalism and ethical decision-making confidence of nursing students, and the mediating effect coefficient of moral sensitivity was .16.Conclusion: Based on the results of the study, it is suggested to prepare a plan to increase ethical decision-making confidence and moral sensitivity when planning interventions to improve nursing professionalism in nursing students.