Predicting moral intelligence in nursing students and its relationships with self-compassion, and cultural competence: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: In the recent era, nursing needs employees with moral intelligence, cultural competence, and self-compassion skills more than ever. This study aimed to determine the predictors of moral intelligence and its relationship with self-compassion and cultural competence in nursing students. METHODS: This cross-sectional and multi-center descriptive study was conducted in 2022. With convenience sampling, 250 nursing students from three Iranian universities participated in this study. Data gathering included the Moral Intelligence Questionnaire, Self-Compassion Scale (short form), and Cultural Competency Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the correlation between variables, and hierarchical regression. RESULTS: The results showed that nursing students had good moral intelligence (72.63 ± 11.38), moderate self-compassion (37.19 ± 5.02), and poor cultural competence (50.06 ± 13.15). No statistically significant relationship was observed between self-compassion and cultural competence (r = 0.11, p = 0.07). Moral intelligence with marital status (r = 0.16, p = 0.01), academic year (r = 0.14, p = 0.03) and self-compassion (r = 0.33, p < 0.001) had a significant relationship in such a way that these variables explained 15% of moral intelligence and self-compassion had the highest impact (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Considering the moderate level of self-compassion and the poor level of cultural competence reported in the undergraduate nursing students, and also that self-compassion was known to be a predictive factor for moral intelligence, planners and educators must pay more attention to promoting self-compassion and cultural competency in the curriculum and conduct studies to find ways to improve them.