Qom University of Medical Sciences Journal

Background and Objectives: Nurses in their daily practice need acceptable level of ethical development. There is few literature about ethical development of Iranian nurses. The aims of present study are to determine the level ethical development in nurses and its related factors.   Methods: This descriptive-correlational study conducted in 2010. The study sample consisted of 269 nurses working in three training-treatment hospitals affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. These nurses selected by census sampling method. For assessing the ethical development of nurses, nursing dilemma test was used. This questionnaire was designed based on Kohlbergs’ theory of ethical development and assessed ethical development in pre-convetional, conventional and post-convetional levels. The data analysis was done by descriptive and inferential statistics.   Results: Forty four nurses (16.3%) were in pre-conventional level, 86 nurses (31.8%) were in conventional level, 116 nurses (43.1%) were in post-conventional level, and 23 nurses (8.5%) were in clinical consideration level. There was negative significant correlation between ethical development of nurses with their job experience.   Conclusion: In spite of this fact that near half of nurses are at postconventional level, but still a significant number of them are at lower levels of ethical development. These findings indicate that nursing managers should pay more attention to ethical development of nurses