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Published on: February 16, 2011
Nurses' perception of ethical climate at a large academic medical center
Donna Lemmenes1, Pamela Valentine1, Patricia Gwizdalski1
1The University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC), USA.
Background:
Nurses are confronted daily with ethical issues while providing patient care. Hospital ethical climates can affect nurses' job satisfaction, organizational commitment, retention, and physician collaboration.
Purpose:
At a metropolitan academic medical center, we examined nurses' perceptions of the ethical climate and relationships among ethical climate factors and nurse characteristics.
Design/Participants:
We used a descriptive correlational design and nurses ( N = 475) completed Olson's Hospital Ethical Climate Survey. Data were analyzed using STATA. Ethical considerations: Approvals by the Nursing Research Council and Institutional Review Board were obtained; participants' rights were protected.
Results:
Nurses reported an ethical climate total mean score of 3.22 ± 0.65 that varied across factors; significant differences were found for ethical climate scores by nurses' age, race, and specialty area.
Conclusion:
These findings contribute to what is known about ethical climate and nurses' characteristics and provides the foundation to develop strategies to improve the ethical climate in work settings.
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