A Study on Patients' Perception of Nurse's Behavior in Protecting Patient Privacy

Lee, Mi Young; Song, Young Shin

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the patient's perception of the nurse's behavior in protecting patient privacy and to make suggestions for medical facilities to increase protection of patient privacy. METHOD: The research was a survey study. The data on protection of privacy in primary nursing, for physical privacy, of patient information and in private conversations were collected in October 2005 from 187 patients in a university hospital. Frequencies, means, t-test, ANOVA, and chi-square-test were used to analyze the data. The SPSS 13.0 for Windows program was used.
RESULTS
The mean score for patients' perception of nurse protection of their privacy was 3.33. There were significant differences in perception of protecting patients' privacy according to gender for private conversation, according to level of education for all but physical nursing and for number of admissions for total score and for primary nursing.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study suggest the following: a) Institutional polices and nursing guideline should be clearly stated as to the nurses' duty to protect patient privacy. b) Medical facilities should be arranged in a way that allows for the protection of patients' medical information, and should focus on patient privacy. c) It is necessary of nurses to receive periodic in-service education on protecting patient privacy.