Perspective of patients about compliance with standards of professional ethics in nursing practice

Nursing ethics is an essential part of the nursing profession and compliance with it is expected from the part of health care institutions. This study was aimed at determining perspective of patients about compliance with standards of professional ethics in nursing practice. This is an analytical study using quota sampling. The study conducted after participation of 504 hospitalized patients in medical and surgical wards of Jahrom hospitals in Iran. Data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire with 22 questions. The tool examined compliance of the patients with professional ethics and was designed in three dimensions including: responsibility taking, improving quality care of the patients, and patient respect. Then the data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. Nurses showed good ethical practice in different dimensions including 40% in responsibility dimension, 45% in improving quality care dimension, and 69% in respecting patient. Independent T test showed a significant difference between the type of ward (Medical Surgical ward), and compliance with ethics in responsibility dimension (P=0.03 and R=2.3). Furthermore, there was a significant difference between compliance with age and professional ethics. Nurses showed good compliance with ethical practice in different dimensions; thus, it is recommended to hold in-service training courses in this theme and remove barriers for a better compliance with professional ethics in the health care system.