Exploring the Barriers of Moral Courage from Iranian Nurses' Point of View: A Qualitative Study

Abstract Background: Nursing is a caring profession. Due to the nature of their, nurses need moral courage to deliver safe nursing care. Research results have reported a low level of moral courage in the majority of nurses. So the current study aimed to explore the barriers to the formation of moral courage nurses who work in hospitals. Methods: In this qualitative study, conventional content analysis was used to explain the barriers to moral courage in hospital nurses. Data was gathered using in-person, semi-structured in-depth interviews. Interviews were conducted from March to September 2020. Purposeful sampling was used and sampling was continued until data saturation was reached. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis. Participants were 19 nurses working in hospitals in Iran. Results: Three main themes extracted including organizational failure, deterrent individual identity, and defeated professional culture as well as six categories and eighteen sub-categories. Conclusions: The results of this study revealed the barriers to moral courage which were usually overlooked in previous quantitative studies. It appears that the elimination of these barriers is an effective step in the improvement of nurses’ competencies and delivered care. The results of this study can be helpful in the development of management programs to identify the factors affecting nurses' moral courage and how to improve it.