Abstract:
Background: Currently, hospitals not only have to contend with the dynamics of regulation but
most importantly they have to deal with the issue of professional ethics. Adherence to
professional ethics by health care workers is one of the most critical aspects of quality health
service delivery. Because it involves the way service providers interact with service users.
Objective: To assess perceived adherence to professional ethics and associated factors among
health care professionals in hospitals found in Bale Zone, Oromia region, South East - Ethiopia.
Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was employed from April 1
st to April 30th 2019
in public hospitals found in Bale Zone. All medical doctors, nurses and midwives who involved
in patient treatment and care in the different units of the hospitals during data collection and who
have worked at least for six months prior to the data collection were included in this study. The
edited and cleaned data entered into a computer using SPSS version 20.0 software and a
summary descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression was performed. All statistical tests
were declared at p-value less than 0.05.
Results: From the total of 417 questionnaires distributed to different health care units in the
hospitals, the analysis was done for 408 responses which give a response rate of 97.8%. Overall,
186(45.6%) respondents had good perceived adherence to ethical practice. Medical doctors (
AOR = 3.0; 95% CI: 1.41, 6.27) , good attitude towards professional ethics (AOR= 1.6; 95% CI:
1.01, 2.44), adequate information about professional ethics in the curriculum (AOR = 2.1; 95%
CI: 1.14, 3.06), working experience more than six years (AOR = 2.5; 95% CI: 1.32, 4.75) and
the presence of active ethics committee in hospitals (AOR = 2.0; 95% CI: 1.07, 2.62) were
associated with good perceived adherence to professional ethical practice.
Conclusions: The overall perceived adherence to professional ethics among Bale zone health
professionals was poor. Types of profession, work experience, perceived adequacy of
professional ethics in the curriculum, presence of active ethics committee in hospitals and
attitude towards professional ethics had statistically significant association with perceived
adherence to professional ethical practice. Improving staff‟s attitude towards professional ethics,
considering the intensity of compassionate and respectful care training for different professionals
differently and revising the contents of professional ethics in the respective curriculums is
recommended.
