Practice of Professional ethics and Associated factors among Nurses working in Government Health Facilities of Oromia Special Zone surrounding Finfinne, Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Professional ethics is an important standard for nursing Practice which gives direction within the performance of nursing duties. Nowadays questions are being asked on nursing professional ethics about the possible threats to the accepted principles of equity and social justice in the delivery Nursing care and Procedure. Despite these gaps little was studied about nursing professional ethics so far. Objective: To Determine Practice of Professional ethics and its associated factors among Nurses working in Government Health Facilities of Oromia specia1 zone surrounding Finfinne. Methods: facility based cross- sectional study was conducted from May 1-30th, 2022 among all 212 Nurses. Pretested self-administered questionnaires and observational checklist were used to collect data and entered using Epiinfo 7.1, then exported to SPSS version 25 for further analysis. Both Descriptive and Analytical Statistics was done and the result was displayed using texts, frequency table and Figures. Binary and multivariable logistic regression analyses were employed to identify associated factors. Variables having a P-value of <0.05 in the multivariable logistic regression model were considered as significantly associated variables. Results: This study was completed through 212 nurses with response rate of 97.2% and 97 nurses observed for practice of nursing professional ethics. This Study showed 53.8% of nurses had Good self-reported Practice of Nursing professional ethics, while 52.6% had Poor Observed Practice of professional ethics. Work experience (AOR=0.419, 95% CI: 0.121-0.972), Marital status (AOR= 0.103, 95% CI: 0.036-0.292), Type of health Facility (AOR=2.723, 95% CI: 1.107-6.695), Training of Nursing Professional ethics after school (AOR=12.529, 95% CI: 1.772-88.563), Knowledge on Nursing professional ethics ((AOR=11.386, 95% CI: 4.576- 28.334) and attitude towards nursing professional ethics (AOR=2.202, 95% CI: 1.054-4.605) had significant association with practice of professional ethics. Conclusion and recommendations: In this study, more than half of nurses had Good self reported Practice of Nursing professional ethics, while less than half had Good Observed Practice of professional ethics. Training, Knowledge on Nursing professional ethics and attitude towards nursing professional ethics was associated with practice of professional ethics Therefore, it‟s important to provide on job and up to date training for staff nurse and increasing Knowledge and Attitude through continuous professional development.