Nurse's Performance on Iranian Nursing Code of Ethics from Patient's Perspective

Increasing quality improvement and customer orientation in health services results from continuous feedback of patients'' expectations and enhancement of service delivery. Although most nurses and nursing students are aware of ethical dimensions of their profession and its importance، the main concern is about their ability to respect ethical aspects of clinical act. In this study، nurses'' performance on Iranian nursing code of ethics was studied from patients'' perspective. It was a descriptive study that was conducted in 2012. The sample consisted of 500 hospitalized patients in medical-surgical wards of Tabriz teaching hospitals. Data was collected by a researcher-made questionnaire based on Iranian nursing code of ethics and analyzed using Descriptive and inferential statistics، independent t -test، ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient by SPSS -PC (v. 13). The majority of patients were male، married، at high school level of education، and hospitalized in surgical wards، with a history of previous hospitalization. Nurses’ performance on Iranian nursing code of ethics was good (first level) in 41. 8% of cases، moderate (second level) in 51. 8% of cases and low (third level) in 6. 4% of cases from patients’ perspective. The findings would act as a guide for nurse managers to design programs for improving respect to nursing code of ethics، consideration of patients'' rights and patient satisfaction.