Evaluation of Professional Ethics Observance in Nursing Practice from Nurses and Patients’ Point of View in Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences’ Teaching Hospitals

Introduction: Nursing is inherently a moral and ethical practice and health care quality is largely contingent upon how nurses fulfill their duties. Therefore, this study evaluated professional ethics observance in nursing practice from viewpoints of nurses and patients in teaching hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in 2014. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 210 inpatients and 210 nurses working in different wards of 5 teaching hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical sciences. Participants were selected by available sampling method. Data were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire according to Nursing Ethics in Iran. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (independent t-test, Mann-Whitney test, and Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficient). Results: Findings showed that 48.3% and 6.9% of patients evaluated nurses’ performance in observing professional ethics at bad and good level respectively, while most patients (91.7%) evaluated their performance as good. Findings also showed a significant difference between the views of patients and nurses in terms of observing professional ethics (p<0.001). Conclusion: Findings could have implications for nursing managers and planners in order to make effective plans to reduce the difference between the views of patients and nurses.