Examination of ethical approaches of family health workers in the cervical cancer screening program

Aim: The aim of the research is to examine the ethical approaches of Family Health Workers who took part in cervical cancer screening program. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted with Family Health Workers (FHW) who participated in cervical cancer screening program in Family Health Centers affiliated to İzmir Bornova and Kemalpaşa District Health Directorates (n=119). Data collection tool consists of 2 parts. The first part was prepared by the researchers about the socio-demographic characteristics and ethical approaches of FHW and the second part was used the Ethics Status Scale. The data were analyzed by Indipendent-Samples T Test and Mann Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results: When the socio-demographic characteristics of FHW were examined, 58% were 40 years and older; the average year of Professional work is 19.4 ± 8.7. 72.3% of FHW is a midwife, 27.7% is a nurse; 52.1% is satisfied with the professionand 46.2% is a graduate. In the cervical cancer screening program of FHW, the average working year was 4.05 ± 1.9; 89.1% of the participants received training on this subject and 67.9% of the who received theoretical and practical training. In the cervical cancer screening program of FHW, the ethical problem was 14.3%. The mean score of the ethical status of FHW's was 75.57 ± 11.94, the mean idealism score was 41.26 ± 6.3 and the mean relativism score was 34.31 ± 7.4. Midwives were more idealistic and those who were very satisfied with the profession of FHW's were found to be more idealistic. Conclusion: The findings of the study indicate that they had ethical problems and could not solve these problems while working in the cervical cancer screening program of FHW's. Also, it can be said that the ethical position in the direction of idealism will have a positive effect on the ethical decision-making process vocationally.