Introduction: The intensive care unit is one of the most sensitive hospital departments. On the other hand, issues related to the conditions of this department, such as the ethical climate, affect the performance and health of nurses. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between the ethical climate and the resilience of nurses working in the intensive care unit.

Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional study conducted in 2022 in the intensive care units (ICU & CCU) of hospitals affiliated with Zanjan University of Medical Sciences. The study population consisted of 224 nurses working in the intensive care units who were selected non-randomly and purposively. The research tools included demographic questionnaires, Victor and Cullen's moral climate, and Connor and Davidson's resilience. SPSS version 22 was also used to analyze the data.

Results: According to the findings, the average score of the moral climate of the special wards (39.54±3.52) and the resilience of the nurses (39.29±3.87) was reported, which indicated an unfavorable moral climate and low resilience of the special wards nurses. Also, there was no significant relationship between the moral climate and the resilience of the special wards nurses (p>0.05). However, a direct significant relationship was observed between the two subscales of the moral climate including rules and regulations (r=.263, P<.001) and attention and care (r=.260, P<.001) with resilience. Also, resilience had no significant relationship with other subscales of the moral climate (p>0.05).

Conclusion: According to the results of the study, there is a significant direct relationship between laws and regulations, as well as attention and care, and nurses' resilience. This shows that the existence of uniform organizational rules and regulations for all nurses and attention to the needs of nurses is one of the factors influencing resilience. Therefore, health system managers and administrators can take action based on the results of this study and adopt operational strategies to improve the resilience of nurses working in special wards.