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Abstract
Nursing is a profession that care for personal and private aspects of people's lives. Therefore, nurses need to know the basic ethical aspects of nursing which is integral in nursing practices. The purpose of the study was to describe the ethical knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses in the Cape Coast Metropolis of Ghana. A cross-section design was used to collect data from 264 nurses in three selected healthcare facilities in the Metropolis. A structured questionnaire was administered to all the categories of these nurses in the selected facilities. Frequency counts and multiple regression statistics were used to analyze the data. The results show 78% of nurses possess good ethical knowledge, 84% had a positive attitude, while 98% had good ethical practices. The results further show that nurses' professional rank [F (1, 259), 2.35, p = .02] and academic qualification [F (1, 259), 2.67, p = .008] were significant predictors of their ethical knowledge and attitude, respectively. Inadequate resources, poor set up of working areas and understaffing are the major barriers limiting the practice of good ethical standards among the nurses. The Regional Health Directorate, the Ministry of Health and the Managers in charge of the health facilities need to work together to eliminate these barriers as they have the potential to negatively impact quality healthcare delivery in the Metropolis.
Highlights
Ethical issues in healthcare and nursing practice are becoming more complex with medical advances, and the increased dynamics of the healthcare system [1]
The results show 78% of nurses possess good ethical knowledge, 84% had a positive attitude, while 98% had good ethical practices
Every professional group has established a code of ethics and standards, normally drawn from the ICN, so, it does not matter where the nurse is trained, they are expected to adhere to those ethics [23], which agrees with previous studies in Turkey [10], Spain [21], Australia [24], Italy [25], Iran [26], and Hong Kong [27]
Summary
Ethical issues in healthcare and nursing practice are becoming more complex with medical advances, and the increased dynamics of the healthcare system [1]. The first step for a nurse to make ethical decisions is to identify and understand the ethical issues surrounding patient care. Ethical nursing practice involves core ethical responsibilities that nurses are expected to uphold, which date back since 1953 [3]. Serve to define nursing “profession” and outline primary duties, responsibilities and obligations towards their clients [4]. Professional code of ethics for nurses serves as a guide for carrying out nursing responsibilities in a manner consistent with quality care, ethical obligations of the profession, acceptance of the rights of individuals, and for patients’ safety [5]. Nursing is a profession that care for personal and private aspects of people’s lives. The purpose of the study was to describe the ethical knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses in the Cape Coast Metropolis of Ghana
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