Ethical predictability of human resources in Iranian hospitals

INTRODUCTION: The effective provision of health services is affected by human resources and this renders upholding ethical principles in hospitals more urgent than in any other organization. This study aimed to determine the ethical predictability of human resources in hospitals in 2022. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in public, private, and "social security" hospitals in Mazandaran province in 2022. Data were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire designed based on Iranian national accreditation standards. The questionnaire consisted of 18 questions from 6 areas, including organizing manpower, employee evaluation, employee satisfaction and participation, employee empowerment, job promotion, and paying attention to employee motivation. The content validity was confirmed using experts' views, and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient higher than 0.78. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc tests. RESULTS: There was a significant difference between the mentioned hospitals regarding the ethical predictability of human resources (p < 0.05), which was higher in social security hospitals (3.80 ± 0.00) compared to public hospitals (3.30 ± 0.00) and private hospitals (2.49 ± 0.00). The highest and the lowest mean ethical predictability of human resources in selected hospitals were reported for the areas of employee empowerment (3.89 ± 0.00) and employee evaluation (2.83 ± 0.00), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to exerting an impact on enhancing the satisfaction and productivity of employees, identifying ethical predictability factors will help medical and health services managers identify the priorities of human resources and adopt solutions to improve them.