Clinical competence of nurses: the ethical and legal aspects

Abstract: Background and Objective: Moral competence is also part of the professional nursing competence, which is based on three structures of individual, educational and functional values. The aim of this study was to assess the moral competence of nurses working in educational hospitals in Guilan. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 230 nurses working in seven educational hospitals in Gilan which were selected by stratified random sampling. Data collection tool was a standard nursing ethics questionnaire. Data were analyzed by Spearman correlation coefficient using SPSS software and at significant level of 0.05. Results: The results showed that the average moral / legal competence of the nurses was 25.82 ± 4.19 (ranges 0 to 32) and in the five-level scale they were in fourth place, that is, the nurses were competent enough. There was a significant positive relationship between the moral / legal qualifications of nurses and age, marital status, overall work experience, and work experience in the current ward, and the average income. Also there is a significant negative relationship between the moral / legal qualifications of nurses and total working hours per month (p< 0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that the nurses had sufficient moral / legal qualifications. According to the findings, nursing managers should consider the positive factors related to competence development. Key words: moral / legal competence, nurse, educational hospital, Gila