title: The code of ethics for nurses.
abstract: Nurses are ever-increasingly confronted with complex concerns in their practice. Codes of ethics are fundamental guidance for nursing as many other professions. Although there are authentic international codes of ethics for nurses, the national code would be the additional assistance provided for clinical nurses in their complex roles in care of patients, education, research and management of some parts of health care system in the country. A national code can provide nurses with culturally-adapted guidance and help them to make ethical decisions more closely to the Iranian-Islamic background. Given the general acknowledgement of the need, the National Code of Ethics for Nurses was compiled as a joint project (2009-2011). The Code was approved by the Health Policy Council of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education and communicated to all universities, healthcare centers, hospitals and research centers early in 2011. The focus of this article is on the course of action through which the Code was compiled, amended and approved. The main concepts of the code will be also presented here. No doubt, development of the codes should be considered as an ongoing process. This is an overall responsibility to keep the codes current, updated with the new progresses of science and emerging challenges, and pertinent to the nursing practice.
authors.affiliation: Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Medical Ethics and History of Medicine Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zahedi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sanjari
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aala
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peymani
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aramesh
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parsapour
authors.forename: Ss Bagher
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Maddah
authors.forename: Ma
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cheraghi
authors.forename: Gh
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mirzabeigi
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Larijani
authors.forename: M Vahid
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Dastgerdi
keywords: Ethical code; Healthcare ethics; Nursing ethics; Patient’s right; Professionalism