Nursing's code of ethics: a survey of respecting the code among nursing students

Assessing nursing students’ level of respect for ethical codes of nursing is essential as these students are the future health care providers. There is a need to check observance of ethics codes among students، because that will determine ethics education and training needs. This study aimed to assess nursing students’ compliance with professional ethical codes and some of the relevant factors. This is a descriptive-analytic and cross-sectional study performed by census on 118 nursing students who were training in hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. The data gathering tool consisted of a questionnaire including demographic information، and another questionnaire which was developed by the researcher based on studies in Iran and throughout the world. The ethical codes that were respected most included «principles of conflict management» and then «respect for the medical staff». «Respect for patients'' rights» and «patient education» received less consideration. Grade point average، gender، marital status، interest in nursing and likelihood to work in nursing had significant association with respect for ethics codes. The results of this study can be used in developing courses on nursing ethics and educating nurses on the subject، and could be of special interest to health planners and policy makers.