The Relationship between Ethical Climate with Job Conscience in Nurses of Intensive Care Units of Educational and Medical Centers of Golestan University of Medical Sciences

 Employees who feel that the ethical atmosphere prevails in the organization consider the relationships and interactions of their organization as fair and this increases their satisfaction and commitment. On the other hand, conscience has been involved in nursing activities and nurses have insight and care must be taken to prevent harm to humans. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between ethical climate and work conscience of intensive care unit nurses.

 This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in 2019-20 in the intensive care units of educational and medical centers of Golestan University of Medical Sciences (6 medical centers) using multi-stage sampling. Hospitals were selected randomly and in proportion to the number of nurses in hospitals, samples were selected in selected hospitals in a purposful and accessible manner. 184 nurses participated in this study. The data were collected using Olson’ ethical climate and Costa & McCrae’ work conscience quessionaires. Descriptive statistics including mean, median, standard deviation and Spearman correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used to examine the relationship between variables. Analyzes were performed using SPSS software 21 at a significance level of 0.05.

 75% of nurses (n=138) were female and 36.4% (n=67) had less than five years of work experience. The mean and standard deviation of ethical climate were 4.01±0.43 (desirable) and nurses' work conscience was 3.46±0.27 (desirable). Ethical climate was favorable in each of five domains (patients, colleagues, managers, physicians and hospitals) (P-value<0.001). Regarding work conscience; the mean scores of dutifulness (3.42±0.35) and achiwement striving (3.42±0.35) indicated that the nurses' opinions were favorable and positive. Spearman test showed a direct relationship between ethical climate and work conscience (r=0.19).

Ethical Considerations:

 In the process of conducting this research, all ethical considerations related to human studies, such as obtaining informed consent and explaining the confidentiality of the details of the participants in the research, were observed.

 The ethical climate and work conscience of the nurses in the intensive care unit was positive and favorable. It is recommended that the managers and stakholders of medical centers create