Background and purpose: Ethical intelligence is highly important in improving interpersonal relationships, especially in medical and nursing staff. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between ethical intelligence and professional behavior in nurses working in educational hospitals affiliated to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.
Materials and methods: In this descriptive correlational study 260 nurses working in educational hospitals of Mazandaran Medical Sciences University in 2018, were selected through stratified random sampling method. Data were collected using demographic questionnaire, modified Nursing Students Professional Behaviors Scale (NSPBS), and Lennick and Kiel's Ethical Intelligence Questionnaire (2005) In order to analyze the data, descriptive and inferential statistics were applied in SPSS V18.
Results: The mean scores for professional behavior and moral intelligence were 113.33 ± 13.66 and 151.56±20.86, respectively. Spearman correlation coefficient showed a significant positive correlation between moral intelligence and professional behavior (r= 0.523, P= 0.001).
Conclusion: This study showed that high moral intelligence leads to better professional behavior in nurses. Therefore, it seems that professional behavior of nursing staff could be predicted according to their ethical intelligence. Moreover, enhancing the knowledge of nurses about ethical intelligence, improves ethical aspects in patient care and increases patient satisfaction in health care settings.