Nursing adherence to ethical codes in pediatric oncology wards

The nature of children's cancer comes with lots of ethical issues. Nurses are encouraged to adhere to ethical codes in their practice.

This study aimed to compare the perspectives of nurses and mothers of children with cancer regarding the adherence of nurses to ethical codes.

In this descriptive-comparative study, a researcher-made questionnaire was used to assess the amount of adherence to Iranian nurses' code of ethics in perspectives of pediatric oncology nurses and mothers. As a convention, the total scores were categorized as optimal, average, and low adherence.

A total of 200 mothers and 60 nurses in pediatric oncology wards of five major hospitals in Tehran, Iran, participated in 2016.

Organizational approval by the university and informed consent were ensured before conducting the research. The principles of voluntariness, confidentiality, and anonymity were respected during the research process.

Results showed the mean score of the adherence to ethical codes by nurses, as per the nurses is 86.71 (12.57) and as per the mothers is 78.67 (16.09). The highest frequency for "Low adherence" and "Optimal adherence" to code of ethics by nurses were "Respect for individual autonomy and decision-making" (mothers, 72% and nurses, 70%) and "Commitment to confidentiality" (mothers, 64% and nurses, 74%), respectively. This revealed a significant difference between the responses of the nurses and the mothers (p = 0.001).

The results support the other studies in Iran about the difference between the perspectives of patients and nurses about adherence of nurses to ethical codes.

Integration of family-centered and conventional care in addition to more attention to the education of professional ethical principles could be helpful to improve the ethical performance of nurses in oncology pediatric wards.