Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Valuing human being is the foundation of nursing and the essence of care. Specified aspects of the health care are not compatible with the humanistic agenda. Thus, the challenge is to integrate a humanistic approach into nursing. Nursing scientists have tried to solve this problem by developing human centered theories. Internal evaluation of these theories helps decide about their applicability in solving this problem and enhancing a humanistic approach.The aim of this article is to investigate the applicability of some humanistic theories to nurses' practice. The method is critical review of related literature. Data have been gathered by consulting books, searching some data bases, and using some guiding questions. Findings revealed that humanistic nursing theories, transpersonal care, and human development are becoming specifically expanded under the influence of humanism philosophy. In these theories, human being is free and prepared to grow in a mutual interaction with the environment. Nursing flows from its presence along side others and respect for people's potentials, and has a share in human growth. Emphasis on human interactions has increased the scope of applicability for these theories, but some characteristics of these theories, users, and different context necessitate modifying these theories and developing new ones.      

Nurses encounter challenging ethical issues in practice that can make decision making tough for them. The purpose of this study was to determine the moral sensitivity of critical care nurses in clinical decision making and its correlation with their caring behavior in teaching hospitals of Bandar Abbas in 2012.This research is a descriptive analytic study with intensive care unit nurses as its participants. A demographic and background questionnaire, a standard questionnaire of the nurses’ moral sensitivity, and a caring behavior questionnaire were used to collect information. Data were analyzed using SPSS16 software, descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis, and Spearman’s correlation.The mean score of the nurses’ moral sensitivity was 70.15 ± 6.90 (maximum score was 96 and minimum score was 49) that was moderate in 85.6% of the nurses. The mean score of the nurses’ caring behavior was 108.90 ± 10.62 (maximum score was 120 and minimum score was 69). There was no significant correlation between moral sensitivity and caring behavior scores, but both scores were significantly associated with the place where the nurses were working. The dimension of respect for patient autonomy had a significant relationship with participation in medical ethics seminars or workshops.The moral sensitivity of the nurses in this study was moderate and did not have a significant correlation with caring behavior scores. In view of the fact that nurses deal with serious situations in patient care that call for adequate ethical abilities for decision-making as well as good performance, it is necessary for them to be familiar with and sensitive to ethical issues related to their profession.