Awareness of professional rules among Iranian nurses: a cross-sectional study.

Background: One of the main responsibilities of professional nurses is protecting themselves against legal complications. Hence, they have to be sufficiently aware of the professional rules. This study examines the Iranian nurses' awareness of professional rules.

Methods: A total of 260 nurses were randomly selected from among the nurses working at various wards and included in this cross-sectional descriptive analytical study. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. The collected data were then analyzed using descriptive (mean and frequency percentage) and inferential (Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis) statistics.

Results: The nurses' mean awareness of professional rules was 28.3 ± 4.0 out of 37. There was a significant relationship between the mean awareness of the nurses and ward ( p  = 0.001). However, this relationship was not significant regarding demographic variables age, sex, marital status, job title, working experience, education and history of participation in retraining courses on professional rules.

Conclusion: A significant number of nurses were not adequately aware of professional rules, which can put them and their working organization at serious risks. Some measures such as holding web-based or in-person training courses and providing educational booklets and pamphlets can be helpful in this regard.