The effect of implementing nursing ethics code as a combined plan, in the School of nursing and clinical setting, Bojnurd, North Khorasan Province (2013-2015)

Abstract

Background: It is very important when teaching ethics to nurse students to select an educational method and materials that are relevant to their future career as clinical nurses. The aim was to determine the effect of implementing nursing ethics codes as a combined plan in North Khorasan’s University of Medical Sciences.Methods: This research was an action research conducted in School of Nursing and Clinical setting at Bojnurd, North Khorasan Province, Iran, from September 2013 until September 2015. Data was collected through checklists and interviews with small groups and then analyzed. First, the researchers explored the difficulties in imposing nursing ethics codes. Then a combined plan was considered to solve the ethical codes’ problem. To perform this combined plan, a combination of interferences from three different levels of scope, which are students, college, and clinic, was considered. Permission from the Bojnourd’s Nursing and Midwifery College Educational Council was obtained for this study.Results: The results of this study showed that 65.5% of students had given the right answers to ethical codes. More than half of the students remarked that respecting the rights of patients and nurses was the most important code. More than half believed that there was a system to supervise the implementation of ethical codes. The results from the ethical rounds with students showed that disobedience to ethical codes occurred in the three fields which are clinical staff, educator, and student administrators. This study offered a practical model for implementing professional ethics code based on Iran’s sociocultural background. Along, this study was done to satisfy the need for ethical education and conduct according to these professional ethics code in the college and the clinical setting.Conclusion: It is recommended that a suitable evaluation system should be considered to get the feedback from the implementation of this combined plan of teaching professional ethics codes.