The correlation between clinical competency, moral sensitivity and moral metacognition of nursing students at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in 1401

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: According to the review of previous studies, nursing students' clinical competence in Iran is favorable. However, nursing students, as future nurses, need to be sensitive and adhere to the principles of their profession and nursing technical skills to make correct decisions while caring for patients and accepting their professional responsibilities. For this reason, the present study was conducted to determine clinical competence and its relationship with moral sensitivity and moral metacognition of nursing students in Tabriz Nursing School in 2022. Methodology: This correlational-descriptive study was conducted on 170 nursing students in the Faculty of Nursing in Tabriz. The sampling method is a census. To collect data, the questionnaire of social-individual characteristics, clinical competence Meretoja, moral sensitivity Lutzen, and moral metacognition McMahon & Good was used. Descriptive (mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentage) and inferential statistics including independent t-tests, analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation were used to analyze the data. Results: The average clinical competence (standard deviation) of nursing students was 213.06 (37.35) out of a possible score of 73-292, the average moral sensitivity was 129.31 (15.55) out of a possible score of 28-196 and the average moral metacognition was 85.92 (13.35) out of a possible score of 20-120. Overall, the results showed that clinical competence has a positive and significant relationship with moral metacognition (p=0 and r=0.511). But it has no significant relationship with moral sensitivity (p=0.709 and r=-0.038). Also, moral sensitivity did not show a significant relationship with moral metacognition (p=0.053 and r=0.191). Discussion and conclusion: The strong positive and significant correlation between clinical competence and moral metacognition, shows that nursing students have been able to integrate well their beliefs and moral values with their technical skills. So that can be said, the theoretical training of ethics units in Tabriz Nursing School and work experience in the clinical environment has been effective for nursing students.