Abstract
BackgroundHealthcare providers working in Saudi Arabia come from various nationalities, cultures, and training backgrounds. This study aimed to assess the perceptions of healthcare providers working in Riyadh hospitals about ethical dilemmas and solutions.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study among physicians working in Riyadh’s private and governmental hospitals between June and December 2017. The study collected information on demographics, knowledge about medical ethics, the sources of such knowledge, and common ethical issues in general and the top ethical issues and dilemmas encountered in their daily practice.ResultsA total of 455 physicians from government and private hospitals were enrolled in the study. The mean age of the participants was 34.29 ± 10.5 years, females were 29.7% and mean years of practice was 13.0 ± 11.5. The top ethical issues identified by the participants were “disagreement with the patients’ relatives about treatment” (91%), patient disagreement with decisions made by professionals (84%), treating the incompetent patient (79%), conflict with administration policy and procedures (77%), scarcity of resources (72%), and making decision about do-not-resuscitate or life-sustaining treatment (68%). There were significant differences in dealing with ethical issues in relation to gender, confidence about ethical knowledge, nationality, seniority, training site, and private or government hospitals academic and nonacademic.ConclusionHealthcare providers in Riyadh hospitals face multiple ethical challenges. In addition to improvement in ethics knowledge through educational program among healthcare professional, there is a valid need for healthcare professionals and other sectors within society to engage in serious and continuous dialogue to address these issues and propose recommendations.
Highlights
Healthcare professionals frequently encounter moral dilemmas during their daily practice [1,2]
This study aims to identify the major ethical challenges and issues facing the physicians in general, in terms of possible differences between ethical issues among physicians working in government and private hospitals, and in assessing the association between healthcare professionals’ perception of ethical issues and their background, education, nationality, and specialty
In this study we found that Saudi healthcare providers face important ethical challenges during their daily practice
Summary
Healthcare professionals frequently encounter moral dilemmas during their daily practice [1,2]. Previous studies have explored major ethical dilemmas faced by healthcare professionals in different cultures and countries [3,4,5,6,7,8]. There were studies addressing ethical issues in specific situations such as dealing with physician’s behavior or treating patients with do-not-resuscitate (DNR) status [11,12,13]. These studies did not assess other related factors such as knowledge of physicians about medical ethics, professional codes of ethics, ethics guidelines and their gender, nationality, and years of experience. This study aimed to assess the perceptions of healthcare providers working in Riyadh hospitals about ethical dilemmas and solutions
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