Adherence To Professional Ethics In Nursing Practice: A Case Study Of Sunyani Municipal Hospital

ABSTRACT The study assessed nurses’ adherence to their professional codes of ethics in the course of their practice using the Sunyani Municipal Hospital (SMH) as the case for the study. As a mixed method study, seventy-nine nurses were purposively selected from various departments in the SMH. Seventy-one nurses filled questionnaires on adherence to professional ethics in nursing practice. Eight nurses took part in the in-depth interviews on adherence to nursing ethics. Descriptive statistics were used to establish the patterns of responses from the frequency distributions. The Fisher’s Exact Test (FET) of independence was performed to find out the influence of gender, religion, professional ranks and monitoring and sanctions on adherence to professional codes of ethics. Interviews were recorded and grouped into themes for the narrative. The study results showed that nurses have knowledge on their professional codes of ethics. The main source of knowledge is school (84.5%, n=60) followed by in-service training and workshop attendance. Findings of the study also indicated that nurses have a positive outlook on their professional codes of ethics. Again, from the FET, it was found that nurses’ gender and religion have no influence on adherence to nurses’ professional codes (P-value=0.300; P-value=0.300 respectively). However, monitoring and sanctions and professional ranks have influence on adherence (P-value=0.047; P-value=0.040 respectively). It was found that nurses at the SMH are monitored to ensure adherence to their professional ethics. Based on the findings, it is recommended that name tags should be made for nurses for easy identification by patients. This will enable clients to identify a nurse and report to authorities for appropriate measures to be taken if the nurse is found not to adhere to the prescribed ethical standards. Nurses across the ranks should be given the chance to attend workshops to increase their knowledge on ethics