Viewpoint of Nurses and Patients about Inherent Dignity of Patients

Respecting the inherent dignity of humans means having respect for their basic rights in different environments. This issue is of paramount importance in studies and discussions related to healthcare. This study aimed to compare the viewpoints of nurses and hospitalized patients about the inherent dignity of patients. This descriptive and analytical research was conducted on 385 patients and 79 nurses selected from Imam Hossein Hospital of Shahroud, Iran based on the inclusion criteria and by the census sampling. After explaining the objectives of the research and receiving written and oral consents from the subjects, demographic characteristics questionnaire and a researcher-made questionnaire on the inherent dignity of patients were completed by the participants. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 19 using independent t-test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. In addition, the significance level was considered 0.05 in all tests. In this study, the mean age of the subjects was 49±18 years and 28.8±6.2 years in the patient and nurse groups, respectively. Moreover, mean clinical work experience of the nurses was 6.2±6.4 years, and their overtime in the ward was 91.4±57.7 hours per month. According to the results, a significant coloration was found between age and score of the inherent dignity of patients (r=0.144, P<0.05). According to the results of the study, the score of the inherent dignity of patients was lower from the perspective of patients, compared to nurses. Therefore, it is recommended that more attention be paid to factors related to maintaining or improving the inherent dignity of patients in the clinic and various hospital wards