Investigation of Relationship between Moral Intelligence and Clinical Self-Efficacy among Nursing Students of School of Nursing and Midwifery in Urmia, Iran, in 2019

Background and Objective: Training competent nurses with ethical and professional qualifications is one of the main goals of nursing education. In this regard, self-efficacy and moral intelligence in educational environments are among the most important factors affecting human behaviors. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the relationship between moral intelligence and clinical self-efficacy among the nursing students of Urmia School of Nursing and Midwifery, Urmia, Iran, during 2019. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was performed on a total of 216 nursing students of Urmia School of Nursing and Midwifery In 2019. The data were collected using a 3-part questionnaire, including demographic characteristics, Lennick and Kiel moral intelligence, and self-efficacy of nursing studentsʼ clinical performance. The Pearsonʼs correlation coefficient, independent t-test, analysis of variance, and Chi-square test were used in order to analyze the data. The obtained results of the present study showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between moral intelligence and self-efficacy, and the relationship between self-efficacy and moral intelligence was reported as 0.469 (P=0.000). In addition, the correlation coefficient of moral intelligence with clinical self-efficacy was 0.314 (P=0.000), and the explanatory coefficient was 0.307. Finally, based on the obtained results it can be stated that 30.7% of the clinical self-efficacy of the students could be explained using the moral intelligence variable (P=0.001). Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that moral intelligence is a good predictor of emotional self-efficacy, and the integration of ethical intelligence and self-efficacy enables powerful bases to emerge from ethical abilities in the field of clinical therapy. Therefore, to improve and enhance the studentsʼ sense of self-efficacy, the authorities should pay attention to the essential component of moral intelligence and try to promote it through practical training.