Background <p>Nurses’ perceptions of the ethical climate in their workplace and their level of job involvement are crucial factors that may influence their professional behaviors. This study aimed to explore how these factors —the nurses’ perspectives on the ethical climate and their job involvement—affect their caring behaviors. Additionally, the mediating and moderating effects of job involvement on the relationship between ethical climate and caring behaviors were examined.</p> Methods <p>This cross-sectional study enrolled 280 nurses through stratified random sampling. Job Involvement Scale, Hospital Ethical Climate Survey, and Caring Behaviors Inventory were used for data collection. SPSS and Macro PROCESS SPSS were used for hierarchical regression and moderation/mediation analysis.</p> Results <p>This study found that nurses demonstrated high levels of caring behavior and a moderate perception of the hospital’s ethical climate, with 80% reporting moderate job involvement. Nurses’ views on the hospital and patient-related ethical climate predicted caring behaviors (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). A relationship existed between job involvement and caring behaviors (<i>r</i> = 0.17, <i>p</i> = 0.004). Additionally, nurses with a more positive view of the hospital’s ethical climate exhibited higher levels of job involvement (<i>r</i> = 0.43, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). However, job involvement did not moderate or mediate the relationship between ethical climate and caring behaviors.</p> Conclusions <p>Our findings indicate that a positive ethical climate enhances nurses’ job involvement and caring behavior. Job involvement, in turn, improves caring behavior. It emphasizes the need for a supportive work environment to improve nursing practice. It is recommended that healthcare institutions should strengthen the ethical climate to enhance job involvement and caring behaviors.</p> Clinical trial number <p>Not applicable.</p>