Investigation of labor behavior of health institutions in professional ethics: Example of central public hospitals in Diyarbakır

Especially during the last century, advances in the fields of economics, science, and technology resulted in many problems regarding ethics. As possessing ethical values/principles are considered as "the most affordable risk management strategy", the importance deemed to the concept of ethics has relatively increased. Therefore, recently, there has been a considerable increase in research on ethics. Moreover, quick and broad improvements and updates in rules and regulations have been made concerning ethics. In addition to that ethics committees have been formed. The concept of ethics, although not unimportant for any sector, is especially important for hospitals, which is the most important element of the health sector. Hospitals, the most important elements of the health sector and the focus of the present study are defined by the World Health Organization as "institutions that deliver medical observation, diagnosis, treatment, and related health services in which patients receive short or long-term treatment". Like many other institutions, hospitals are organized as systems that have certain input and that produce output. While wrong decisions or applications in other industrial or service institutions may result in loss of production or loss of finances, wrong decisions in hospital management usually result in a decrease in the quality of human life and a decline in the general health levels of the society. Unlike other sectors, bad management of hospitals result in loss of lives. Therefore the importance that the concept of ethics carries is different for hospitals compared to other institutions. Informed by the relevant literature, this study was designed to investigate the behavior of personnel in a sample of central public hospitals in Diyarbakır from a professional ethics perspective and to test if there is a statistically significant difference between the demographic profile of the personnel and their perceptions of professional ethics. The main problematic of the study; "Investigation of Employee Behaviors in the Central Public Hospitals in Diyarbakır Province in terms of Professional Ethics and Demographic Attributes of Employees and Their Perceptions of Business Ethics". The main hypothesis of the study is, "There is a relationship between the demographic characteristics of the participant personnel and their perceptions of professional ethics." The thesis is composed of seven sections. The introduction is followed by the rationale for the study, the literature review, the methodology, findings, analysis, results and conclusion with general evaluation. In the literature review, the concept of ethics, the social effects of ethical behavior, the relationship of ethical codes, standards, principles and rules with ethics, the historical overview and philosophical approaches of the ethic discipline, main approaches to and theories of ethics, professional ethics, professional ethics in health services and ethical principles were presented. In the research, a survey method was used in the frame of quantitative approach for data collection. In the first part of the questionnaire, there are 14 questions about the demographic characteristics of the participants. In the second part, there is a scale related to professional ethics consisting of 24 questions prepared according to 5-point Likert Scale. The questionnaire was completed by a total of 280 health care workers from Diyarbakır Obstetrics, Gynecology and Children's Hospital, University Of Health Sciences, Diyarbakır Gazi Yaşargil Training and Research Hospital, Diyarbakır Selahattin Eyyubi State Hospital and Diyarbakır Children's Hospital. The data collected by the survey study method were tested by statistical techniques appropriate for the purpose of the study (ANOVA, t-test). As a result of hypothesis testing, 22 sub-hypotheses were accepted and 34 sub-hypotheses were rejected. At the end of the study, the mean values of both the health professionals in the research and the average in terms of both the factor groups and in terms of the item headings in terms of the ethical principles did not show a very positive result in terms of the ethical infrastructure elements. It is concluded that the employees do not have sufficient knowledge about health professional ethics and principles and therefore cannot reflect on their behaviors. Keywords: Ethics, Professional Ethics and Principles, Medical Ethics and Principles.