The Extent of Maintaining the Privacy of Patients Hospitalized in Emergency Departments of Hospitals Affiliated with Arak University of Medical Sciences; a Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Today, from the viewpoint of nursing ethics, maintaining the privacy of patients as a part of patient rights is the base and foundation of caring for the patient. Therefore, the present study was done with the aim of evaluating the extent to which the privacy of patients hospitalized in emergency department (ED) is maintained. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in EDs of educational hospitals in Arak, Iran. Convenience sampling was used to include patients hospitalized in ED. The tool used for data gathering was a valid and reliable questionnaire that consisted of demographic data as well as 25 questions to assess the physical, informational and mental-social aspects of patient privacy. Gathered data were analyzed with SPSS software version 16. Results: In the end, data extracted from 300 patients with the mean age of 41 ± 7.22 years were evaluated (60% male). Among the studied patients 62.2% of the participants rated the maintenance of their privacy as poor and only a few (1.7%) of them rated their privacy maintenance as good. In the present study, maintaining the privacy of the patients had a significant correlation with age (p = 0.04), marital status (p = 0.04), and level of education (p = 0.03). Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, it seems that from the patients’ point of view, maintenance of their privacy by the staff is poor in the studied centers.