A comparison of the ethical climate of operating rooms from the perspective of operating room nursing students and staff: An analytical study

Background The ethical climate is an essential component of organizational climate or culture. The ethical climate is necessary for clinical practice in operating rooms. Objective This study aimed to compare the ethical climate from the perspective of operating room nursing students and operating room staff of hospitals affiliated with Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Method This analytical study was performed on 95 operating room nursing students and 169 operating room staff of hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. The students were selected through the census method and the staff were selected by using stratified random sampling. The data were collected via Olson’s Hospital Ethical Climate Survey and analyzed by using BMI SPSS version 21. Results The total mean scores of the ethical climate were 3.44 ± 0.45 and 3.32 ± 0.48 from students and staff’s perspectives, and the independent t-test showed no significant difference between them ( p < 0.05). In addition, from the students’ and staff’s points of view, the scores of communication with nurse managers were (3.95 ± 0.59), and (3.61 ± 0.91), the scores of communication with peers were (3.75 ± 0.43) and (3.48 ± 0.59), the scores of communication with patients and staff were (3.18 ± 0.6) (3.33 ± 0.62), respectively with no significant difference ( p > 0.05). Furthermore, the results of the study indicated a significant difference in communication with physicians’ score between operating room staff (2.82 ± 0.49) and students’ views (3.25 ± 0.6) ( p < 0.05). Conclusion Although it is difficult to create a right ethical climate in operating rooms, but hospital managers should implement practical programs to improve the ethical climate of operating rooms and inter-professional teamwork. Besides, deans of faculties can provide ethical-based education for students, who can effectively create an ethical climate.