Evaluation of ethical climate in health services: a systematic review

Abstract

Ethical climate refers to the perceptions shared by health professionals of how ethical issues should be handled in their organization. This study aimed to identify scientific evidence of studies that used the Hospital Ethical Climate Survey in ethical climate assessment. This is a systematic review of 33 articles selected from Scopus, PubMed and Medline databases. Ethical climate was associated with workers’ health issues and it was evaluated as moderate to positive by health professionals. The topic was classified as positive for the “peers,” “patients” and “managers” factors, and negative for “physicians” and “hospital” factors. The review concluded that assessing the ethical climate is important for improving the work environment and that the Hospital Ethical Climate Survey is a valid and reliable instrument for such evaluation.