Maintaining Moral Sensitivity as an Inevitable Necessity in the Nursing Profession

Nursing is a discipline mixed with science, art and ethics.Nursing is not solely limited to technical skill and knowledge.Ethical values, believes, and orientations of nurses have a key role in judging and deciding in clinical environment.According to Lützén et al ethical decisionmaking comprises four components: (1) moral sensitivity;(2) moral judgment; (3) moral motivation; and (4) moral character.Of these four components, moral sensitivity is the most important, since it enables nurses to identify ethical problems in providing patient care, to make the most ethical decision and to achieve ethical sensitivity. 1 Lützén et al described Moral sensitivity as a contextual, intuitive grasp of the patients' vulnerable status and an awareness of the moral repercussions of decisions made on their behalf.In the new decades It was acknowledged that, in addition to cognitive capacity, there were additional aspects of moral sensitivity, such as sensations, feelings, moral knowledge, and skills. 2 Moral sensitivity is defined as the awareness and attention to the existing moral values in a contradictory situation and individual self-awareness to the role and duty on that specific situation, in some studies moral sensitivity has the same meaning as "conscience". 3oreover, for providing ethical and effective nursing care to patients, nurses should develop moral sensitivity and moral reasoning in their profession.Nurses have to be sensitive to moral issues related to their career so that they can respect their client rights in decision making and manage ethical debates in their profession. 4ome experts in ethics call moral sensitivity the ability and capacity of a person to understand the reactions and feelings of others.This level of sensitivity is useful for detecting moral conflicts, emotional and intellectual assessment of vulnerable circumstances, and raising awareness of the moral ramifications of making judgments regarding others. 5Moral sensitivity is becoming more