Barriers to ethical treatment of patients in clinical environments: A systematic narrative review.

Abstract

It is essential that healthcare providers display ethical behavior toward their patients. Despite development of codes of ethics for clinical practice, the occurrence of unethical behaviors toward patients is alarmingly high. The present study was conducted to identify the barriers to ethical treatment of patients in clinical environments. Through systematic narrative review, the present study investigated the barriers to ethical treatment of patients. This study was carried out in line with Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews 2 and Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Ethical challenges in clinical environments can be classified into two categories: "organizational factors" and "personal factors." Organizational factors consist of three domains: managers and regulations, organizational environment, and human resources. Personal factors consist of two domains: factors related to patients and their families and factors related to care providers. Research shows that encouraging healthcare teams to adopt ethical behaviors through education and having them persistently observe ethics in their clinical practice will not completely bridge the gap between theory and practice: it seems that the clinical environment, the personal characteristics of healthcare team members and patients, and the organizational values of the healthcare system pose the greatest barrier to bridging this gap. Accordingly, in addition to raising healthcare providers' awareness of the existing issues in clinical ethics, measures should be taken to improve organizational culture and atmosphere.