[Patients- and nurses' perspectives on respecting patients' privacy during nursing care]

ABSTRACT

Privacy is a major human need and is being considered as the cornerstone of medical care. Nurses, because of the specific nature of their profession, have a substantial role in meeting the patients need for privacy. The aim of this study was to compare viewpoints of patients and nurses about respecting patient's privacy during nursing care. In this descriptive comparative study, all nurses working in three hospitals affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical Science [n= 109] and 161 patients from these hospitals were selected. The data was collected by a single questionnaire was prepared in two forms for either the patients or the nurses. First section of questionnaire consisted of the demographic data of the nurses and patients and the second section measured their viewpoints about respecting patients' privacy during nursing care. The results showed that there was statistically significant difference between nurses' [Mean = 33.06] and patients' [Mean = 27.05] viewpoints about respecting patient's privacy [P<0.001]. Furthermore, there was a positive powerful correlation between the days of hospitalization [P<0.001] and the needs of patients for nursing care [P=0.019] with the patients' viewpoint about respecting to their privacy during nursing care. Also, there was a negative powerful correlation between the perception of patients regarding their health [P<0.001] and the patients' viewpoint of respecting to their privacy during nursing care. This research showed that there were some differences between nurses and patients viewpoint about respecting the patients privacy. Furthermore, the results showed that when the patients need further nursing care, have worse health status or increase in hospitalization day, the patient's viewpoint about respecting to their privacy during nursing care increases. This may indicate that the interaction of the patient with nursing stuff may improve their viewpoint about respecting to privacy