Moral sensitivity as a personal and work attribute of emergency nurses: a cross-sectional study

Objective: to analyze the moral sensitivity of nurses working in Brazilian emergency services according to their personal and work characteristics. Method: quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional research with convenience sampling. A total of 422 nurses from emergency care services in the five regions of Brazil participated. Sociodemographic and work information were collected, as well as the Brazilian version of the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire. Data were collected, after approval by the Ethics Committee, through a self-administered form on the Google Forms Platform, submitted to organization by Excel software and analyzed using R language. Results: nurses with more experience in emergency care services presented higher levels in the dimensions of interpersonal orientation, moral conflict and moral meaning, while men presented higher levels in the dimension of professional knowledge, evidenced by items that include trust in nursing knowledge, intuition, experience and opinion. Conclusion: the distinctions in nurses' moral sensitivity were made according to professional experience. It is worth highlighting that valuing the sharing of intergenerational experiences in service can be a possible strategy to foster moral skills in the field of practice.