The effects of human rights sensitivity and moral sensitivity on the intention to intervene in elder abuse

Purpose: This study examined the effects of emergency room (ER) nurses’ human rights sensitivity and moral sensitivity on their intention to intervene in elder abuse. Methods: This study adopted a descriptive design. Data accrued from 129 ER nurses working in eight tertiary and general hospitals using a convenience sampling method. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 22.0 software package. Results: Gender, elder abuse-related education experience, result perception, responsibility perception (subscales of human rights sensitivity), and moral meaning (subscale of moral sensitivity) were analyzed to explain 16.0% of the intention to intervene in elder abuse. Men showed a higher intention to intervene in elder abuse (β=.19, p=.034) as well as the group experienced in elder abuse-related education (β=.20, p=.018). A higher result perception (a subscale of human rights sensitivity) (β=-.29, p=.040) and responsibility perception (β=.43, p=.002) associated with a lower intention to intervene in elder abuse. Of the moral sensibility subscales, the higher the moral meaning, the higher the intention to intervene in elder abuse (β=.25, p=.016). Conclusion: These results highlight the need to remove barriers that may prevent people from intervening in elder abuse by, for example, providing legal measures applicable to practical settings to protect the identity of those who report such cases and to induce more active intervention. It is also necessary to consider healthcare workers’ obligation to report elder abuse in educational programs and to reinforce education to build moral sensitivity to suspected elder abuse situations.