Professionalism in nursing in Ethiopia: Systematic Review and Meta Analysis

Afework Edmealem ^1* Temesgen Ayenew ¹ Setarg Ayenew ¹ Belachew Tegegne ² Sewunet Ademe ² Dereje Esubalew ³ Addisu Getie ¹ Tiliksew Liknaw ¹

• ¹ Debre Markos University, Debre Marqos, Ethiopia
• ² Injibara University, Injibara, Amhara Region, Ethiopia
• ³ Tropical College of Medicine and Dessie Comprehensive and Specialized Hospital, Dessie, Ethiopia

In any field professionalism is essential. A profession can discharge its responsibilities when professionals are developing their knowledge in different ways such as continuing professional development, expanding level of skills, behaving norms of profession and representing high levels of commitment. Developing professionalism in nurses is the main strategy for improvement of quality nursing care and health care as well. However, there is no any study that showed the comprehensive figure of professionalism in nursing in Ethiopia. Thus, this systematic review and meta-analysis revealed the comprehensive figure on the overall level of professionalism in nursing in Ethiopian.The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta Analysis standard was followed in the reporting of this systematic review and meta-analysis. An extensive exploration of digital repositories, including PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, Cochrane, Africa Journal of Online, Google Scholar, and an advanced Google search, was conducted to obtain published studies detailing professionalism in nursing in Ethiopia. STATA version 17 commands were used to create the pooled estimate with a 95% confidence interval. The I 2 test and Egger's test, respectively, were used to identify the presence of heterogeneity and publication bias. To manage heterogeneity, a subgroup analysis and random effect model were used.Result: A total 11 articles with a total of 3581 participants were included in the final systematic review and meta-analysis. The pooled estimate of professionalism in nursing in Ethiopia was 54% (95% of CI: 44%, 66%). In subgroup analysis, the highest pooled estimate professionalism in nursing was observed in South Ethiopia 64% (95% CI: 43% -86%).The level of professionalism in nursing in Ethiopia is suboptimal. Being female, higher educational level, long years of experience, low work load, favorable job satisfaction, being a member of nursing organization, good working environment, working in non-stressful units, and good organizational culture were the major factors that had positive association with professionalism in nursing. Therefore, healthcare professionals, the ministry of health, and other stakeholders should give attention and intervention to enhance the organizational culture, job satisfaction, working unit and working schedule for nurses.