The ethical dimension of problems faced in general medicine: relationship with moral sensitivity

OBJECTIVE: to identify the main ethical problems and how these relate to the moral sensitivity of nurses working in a general medicine ward. METHOD: this qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive study was conducted in a university hospital located in the south of Brazil. A total of 18 nurses working in a general medicine ward were interviewed. A semi-structured interview script was used, and data were analyzed using discursive textual analysis. RESULTS: nurses considered the main ethical problems to include conflicts at the institutional level, situations involving conflicts with patients and/or family members, and conflicts within the staff. The perception of nurses and how they deal with these problems relate to moral sensitivity. Two categories emerged: experiencing ethical problems, and relationship with moral sensitivity. CONCLUSION: because of the multidimensional nature of moral sensitivity, it trains and enables nurses to recognize and deal with ethical problems faced in clinical practice so that nurses become able to make fair and prudent decisions, improving the quality of nursing care.