Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Nurses and administrators can identify and implement mechanisms to manage, change, and improve the ethical climate in their workplace through an understanding and awareness of this concept as well as how it is perceived by everyone involved.This study aimed to compare the nurses’ perception of the actual and ideal organizational ethical climate in hospitals of Ahwaz Juondishapour University of Medical Sciences. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted on 558 nurses working at 9 medical centers of Ahwaz Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences selected by systematic sampling. Data instrument consisted of 2 parts: 1) demographic characteristics, and 2) actual & ideal climate questionnaire based on the Farsi version of Olson’s ethical climate questionnaire, used to assess nurses’ perception of the hospital ethical climate in 5 categories (managers, colleagues, physicians, patients, and hospitals). Descriptive and inferential statistical tests, independent T-test and One-Way ANOVA were used to analyze the data.Results demonstrated a positive hospital ethical climate (mean = 3.66), while the nurses’ perception of the ideal ethical climate was positive as well. A significant difference was found between the mean scores of the nurses’ perceptions of actual & ideal ethical climates (P<0.05). Results demonstrated a significant relationship between nurses’ work experience & organizational level, and their perceptions of the hospital ethical climate.A positive ethical climate exists in hospitals, although it is far from the ideal ethical climate, and therefore managers must maintain the actual ethical climate and at the same time implement strategies to improve their hospitals’ ethical climate.