Comparison of the viewpoints of the operating room staff and those of patients on the degree of respecting patients’ privacy

Adherence to a set of principles for patient rights, all defined in the form of professional ethics, is considered to be an essential and fundamental aspect of health and safety issues, one of which is respecting patient privacy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the privacy of patients from the viewpoint of personnel and patients in the operating room of Vali-e-Asr Hospital in Fasa University of Medical Sciences.

In a cross-sectional study, a community of staff (50 people) and patients (50 people) were randomly selected. Then, their views on privacy were studied using two valid questionnaires, each containing 12 questions. Also, the personnel performance was checked by a researcher using a checklist. After collecting data, data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics and SPSS software. The significance level was considered as p≤0.05.

The results of data analysis in this study showed that the mean score of satisfaction with privacy in patients was (21.32 ± 4.23) and that of operating room personnel was (30.60 ± 7.52). The results of the analysis of variance showed that there was a significant difference between the staff and the views on privacy (P≤0.001). Also, the results of the analysis of observations showed that privacy in different operating rooms was significantly different (P≤0.001).

The operating room personnel expressed a higher level of satisfaction with the privacy of patients than patients, and the overall level of privacy in this hospital was moderate. As failure to treat can cause irreparable physical and psychological damage, failure to respect professional ethics and violating the privacy of the patient can also result in psychological and, sometimes, physical damage. Therefore, training a well-informed and responsible medical staff regarding the importance of the health of the body, the soul and mind of the patients, and the teaching the principles of professional ethics is obligatory and necessary.