Teaching ethics using games: Impact on Iranian nursing students’ moral sensitivity

Abstract

This study seeks to develop a method of teaching ethics to nursing students using games. We used the one-group pretest–posttest design with 30 undergraduate nursing students as participants. Professional ethics education was provided for 17 weeks in 90-minute sessions. The Lutzen ethical sensitivity questionnaire and a checklist of the satisfaction levels of games used measured the effects of training. Repeated-measures ANOVA and the Greenhouse–Geisser correction were used to measure ethics game satisfaction. After training, total moral sensitivity questionnaire scores increased significantly (p = 0.02). The score on awareness of the relationship with the patient and the application of ethics concepts in ethical decisions from the subdomain of moral sensitivity increased significantly. Card sorting and drawing or art production earned the highest scores of satisfaction. The results show that playing games is a useful approach to developing moral sensitivity among nursing students to make them more sensitive toward ethics issues in their professional environment.