Knowledge and attitude toward professional ethics: A study among Iranian medical and nursing students'

BACKGROUND: Professional ethics is a set of principles and standards of human behavior that affect individual behavior and leads to improve care that provided by medical staff. The present study examined the knowledge and attitude of medical and nursing students toward professional ethics in Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This descriptive-analytic study was carried out on 176 medical and nursing students in Bam University of Medical Science, Iran in 2019. In this study, students were selected by census sampling. Data collected using two researcher-made questionnaires related to knowledge and attitude toward professional ethics. Data were analyzed in SPSS software. RESULTS: The mean scores of knowledge among nursing and medical students were 86.56 (8.76) and 85.10 (12.19), respectively. The mean score of attitude among nursing and medical students was 127.06 (12.45) and 129.9 (11.88), respectively. Results of the Pearson correlation test showed a positive and significant associated between the score of knowledge and attitude nursing and medical students' (P < 0.001), (r = 0.76) (r = 0.66). Among the demographics characteristics, student age was associated to their attitude and knowledge significantly (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Iranian nursing and medical students have a positive attitude and a high level of knowledge about professional ethics. A high level of knowledge was related to the most positive attitude.

Automated summary

This study examined the knowledge and attitude of Iranian medical and nursing students on professional ethics. The results showed that these students had a high level of knowledge and a positive attitude towards professional ethics. Furthermore, age was found to be associated with their attitude and knowledge.