The observance of different aspects of patient privacy: Analysis of elderly views

Privacy is one of the fundamental rights of human being that should be respected, particularly in health care organizations. However, most studies in this area have been in intensive care units and non-older age group. The aim of this study was to determine elderly patient’s views about the observance of the different aspects of their privacy during nursing care.
this descriptive-analytic study was done on 100 patients (by using Cochran) in the medical and surgical wards of the hospitals affiliated in Birjand University of Medical Sciences-Ferdows that were selected conveniently. Data were collected by a questionnaire consisted of two parts: demographic characteristics and privacy in the realm of human (12 questions) and personal space (18 questions). Data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (t-test, ANOVA, Mann-Whitney, Spearman tests) through SPSS version 18.
Ethical considerations: informed consent was obtained, after explaining about study aim, anonymously and confidentiality of the information, verbal consent of the participants was obtained. Data collection was done by persons with similar sex.
Findings: The most of participants reported weak rate of the observance of human area with a mean score of 16/95±5/73 (74%) and also, personal space with a mean score 11/55±2/15 (99%). The mean of the total score of the patient privacy was low (28/50±6/54). There was no significant relation between patient sex with the rate of the observance of human area and total score of the patient privacy.
the elderly patients’ privacy was being observed at low level. Therefore, it is necessary to educate nurses and health providers about observance of the elderly patients’ privacy and enhance of the supervisory practice of the managers in related area. Elimination of Shortage of human resources in order to improve the quality of care with respect of patients also is helpful.