Patients’ Privacy and Satisfaction in Emergency Department: A Descriptive Analytical Study

Nowadays, patients’ privacy as an important part of patient’s rights, which is related to his dignity, is regarded as the basis of treatment and care; and its significance as an ethical medical principle is on the increase. Therefore, the current research was conducted to investigate the preservation of patients’ privacy. This research is a cross-sectional descriptive study, conducted on 141 patients (with non-convenience sampling) admitted in the emergency department of Shahid Rahimi Hospital in Khoramabad. Data were collected using a three-part questionnaire investigating patients’ privacy. The results of this study revealed that the highest preserved cases in different dimensions of physical, information, and psychological - social privacy were: sitting on the patient’s bed with his permission), seeing parts of the body of other patients and respecting the values and beliefs of the patient by the medical staff. The most satisfaction case of patients was related to the refusal of the treatment staff from an unnecessary touch of the body and the least satisfaction case of patients was with hearing the conversation of other patients with the doctor or nurse unconsciously. Although the privacy of over half of the patients in terms of physical, information, and psychosocial dimensions was at acceptable level, yet, its observation is at very low level in terms of staff’s treatment ;thus, the managers, physicians, and nurses should pay more attention to this critical need.