Barriers to Respect Professional Ethics Standards in Clinical Care Viewpoints of Nurses

Introduction: Observing the criteria of professional ethics is an innate trait of nursing profession by which an individual gets committed to perform appropriately so that make no harm to the clients and improve their health status. This study aimed to determine barriers to observe professional ethics from nurses’ viewpoints in year 2012. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on a census sample of nurses working in hospitals affiliated to Jahrom University of Medical Sciences (n=152). Data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire about three categories of barriers to compliance with professional ethics standards, including “managerial”, “environmental” and “individual care-giving” obstacles. Data was analyzed by calculating frequency of responses to items, and weighted frequencies in each category. Results: Most responders agreed to the barrier role of environmental (68.5%), individual care-giving (62.7%) and managerial (61.6%) items in meeting ethical standards in practice. The most important barriers were lack of staff (80.3%) regarding management area, overcrowded wards (75.6%) considering environmental area, and failure in fulfillment of basic needs such as sufficient income or enough break-time for nursing staffs (84.8%). Conclusion: Environmental areas were the most important barriers of compliance with professional ethics. Therefore it is recommended that health organizations especially hospitals put emphasis on principles and standards of health care, including environmental factors via precise planning, drawing attention to importance of professional ethics in patients’ recovery, advantages of regarding these ethics and disadvantages of violating them, as well as providing desirable situation for nurses to overcome these barriers.