Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

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Background: The ethical climate (organizational culture) of an organization as perceived by a group of its workers is believed to affect ethical practices, job satisfaction and quality of care. Objectives: To assess the ethical climate of teaching hospitals of Kerman city according to nursing staffs’ views.
Methods: A 26-items questionnaire was translated to Persian which its content validity was acceptable according to the literature review. Its reliability was in an acceptable range according to Cronbach’s alpha (0.92). It was distributed between a convenient sample of 350 nursing staff who worked in the four teaching hospitals of Kerman city. Three hundred and two subjects completed the inventory. All questionnaires were anonymous.
Results: The majority of them (76%) were female. The mean (±SD) age of the individuals were 32.4 (± 8.5). Subscription to the expression “always” was mostly seen for the item “my manager is someone I respect” and it was seldom observed for the item “nurses are supported and respected in this hospital”. There was no significant difference in the total score of the inventory according to background variables (i.e. age, sex, educational level, employment status and hospitals).
Conclusion: According to the great impact of organizational culture on nurses’ practices it seems that some aspects of organizational culture of teaching hospital especially the aspects that are related to physicians and top level managers need to be improved

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Nurses and administrators can identify and implement mechanisms to manage, change, and improve the ethical climate in their workplace through an understanding and awareness of this concept as well as how it is perceived by everyone involved.This study aimed to compare the nurses’ perception of the actual and ideal organizational ethical climate in hospitals of Ahwaz Juondishapour University of Medical Sciences. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted on 558 nurses working at 9 medical centers of Ahwaz Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences selected by systematic sampling. Data instrument consisted of 2 parts: 1) demographic characteristics, and 2) actual & ideal climate questionnaire based on the Farsi version of Olson’s ethical climate questionnaire, used to assess nurses’ perception of the hospital ethical climate in 5 categories (managers, colleagues, physicians, patients, and hospitals). Descriptive and inferential statistical tests, independent T-test and One-Way ANOVA were used to analyze the data.Results demonstrated a positive hospital ethical climate (mean = 3.66), while the nurses’ perception of the ideal ethical climate was positive as well. A significant difference was found between the mean scores of the nurses’ perceptions of actual & ideal ethical climates (P<0.05). Results demonstrated a significant relationship between nurses’ work experience & organizational level, and their perceptions of the hospital ethical climate.A positive ethical climate exists in hospitals, although it is far from the ideal ethical climate, and therefore managers must maintain the actual ethical climate and at the same time implement strategies to improve their hospitals’ ethical climate.

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Considering the advances in today's world, the increased complexity of diseases and longer life expectancy, nurses experience a great deal of moral distress. One factor that is likely to contribute to the development of moral distress is the ethical climate prevailing in hospitals. This study aimed to assess the relationship between nurses' perceptions of moral distress and the ethical climate in Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd. This correlational descriptive study used the Moral Distress Scale (MDS) and Hospital Ethical Climate Survey (HECS) to examine 370 nurses working in a number of hospitals including Shahid Sadooghi, Shahid Rahnemun, Shahid Afshar and Savaneh Sukhteghi. Data analysis was performed using SPSS18 and descriptive and analytical statistics. Findings showed that the intensity of perceived moral distress among nurses was 3.41±1.28, and their perceptions of the ethical climate were 3.22±0.78. There was a significant negative relationship between nurses’ perception of moral distress and the ethical climate (P=0.00). The findings of this study suggest that development of plans to improve the ethical climate prevailing in hospitals might decreases nurses’ perceived moral distress.

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The climate of clinical settings is one of the effective factors on the quality of clinical education and students' attitude toward their field of study. This research aims to determine the relationship between the ethical climate of operating rooms and the students’ attitude toward their field of study in hospitals of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.All medical students in the operating rooms of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in their second semester during the academic year 2013 - 2014 were entered into this analytic study. In addition to the demographic questionnaire, Olson’s Hospital Ethical Climate Survey and a student attitude questionnaire were used to collect the information. Data were analyzed by the SPSS 18 software using descriptive and analytical statistics methods including chi-square test and Spearman's ordinal correlation coefficient.Most of the students were female (61.4%) and single (86.8%) and the mean of their age was 20.87 ± 1.54. Additionally, 64.9% of the students had a negative perception of the ethical climate in operating rooms, while 51.8% had a positive attitude toward their field of study. Moreover, a significant relationship was found between the ethical climate and attitude of operating room students toward their field of study (P ≤ 0.001, r = 0.56). Despite the negative ethical climate of operating rooms, most of the students had a positive attitude toward their field of study. In view of the direct relationship between these two variables, improvements in the ethical climate of operating rooms and students’ attitude toward their field of study can positively affect their future career.

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The ethical climate in hospitals is among the factors affecting health care providers’ moral development and the quality of care. This study aimed to explore nurses' perception of the ethical climate in health centers and certain related factors.

This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 168 nurses employed in one of the teaching hospitals affiliated with Shahed University. Data collection tools included a socio-demographic questionnaire and Olson's Hospital Ethical Climate Survey.

Most of the nurses (83.1%) in this study were female, and the mean age was 35.10 ± 9.42 years. From the nurses’ perspective, the highest score of ethical climate was related to managers (4.56 ± 1.04), and the lowest score pertained to the patients’ domain (2.87 ± 0.47). Moreover, no significant difference was observed in questionnaire domains according to demographic characteristics.

The results showed that the nurses in this study had a relatively positive outlook on the prevailing ethical climate in the hospital. It is recommended, however, that managers devise strategies based on the employees’ viewpoints in order to achieve the ideal ethical climate.

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Today, organizational commitment has been considered as a global concept in human resource management and organizational development. Lack of commitment and low level commitment results in negative outcomes for the individual and organization. One of the important factors influencing organizational commitment is the ethical climate of the organization.The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between ethical climate of medical emergency technicians and their organizational commitment in Kerman University of Medical Sciences. A descriptive analytical design was used in this study. The sample consisted of 103 technicians working in Kerman Emergency Medical Center. The instruments used in this study included a demographic questionnaire, Ethical Climate Questionnaire, and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using Pearson’s correlation, t-test, and descriptive statistics. The result of this research indicated that there is generally a positive and significant relationship between ethical climate and organizational commitment (R:0.39, p:0.001) Also, there was a positive correlation among professionalism, caring, rules, independence climate, and organizational commitment (p:0.01).Findings of this study could be used as a guideline for researchers and managers alike who endeavor to improve organizational commitment. Managers can help improve the ethical climate and as a result of organizational commitment by providing solutions, such as training and planning to institutionalize the ethics of the organization.
 

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