Survey of Nurses' Awareness about the Principles of Professional Ethics and Barriers to Its Observance in Public Hospitals in South Khorasan Province in 2019

Applying the principles of professional ethics by nurses creates a suitable social and psychological environment for patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of nurses' awareness of the principles of professional ethics and barriers towards its observance in public hospitals in South Khorasan province in 2019.The present study was a cross-sectional study that was performed on 230 nurses in South Khorasan province by multi-stage sampling method. Data collection tools were a checklist of demographic information and a questionnaire about nurses' awareness and barriers of the principles of professional ethics. Data were analyzed by SPSS V.22 software using descriptive and inferential statistics. In this study, the mean ± SD age of participants was 32.34 ± 5.73 years. The mean score of participants' awareness was moderate level and the first obstacle to professional ethics from the perspective of nurses was the environmental domain. The most important obstacles to professional ethics were dissatisfaction from basic needs, unreasonable expectations of patients and their attendants from nursing staff and nursing staff shortages, respectively. Since nurses' awareness of the principles of professional ethics is moderate level, so holding professional ethics workshops, removing environmental barriers, and providing favorable conditions for nurses including improving the conditions of wards and increasing staff and meeting their expectations in the fields Various such as adequate rest, adequate income and planning appropriate shifts are recommended.