Patients' Privacy in the Operating Room in Zanjan Educational Hospitals in 2019: Perspectives of Patients and Operating Room Staff

Privacy is one of the basic human needs and is considered one of the most important rights of patients. There is little information about respecting the privacy of patients undergoing surgery in the operating rooms of educational hospitals in Zanjan Iran.

Determine the status of respect for privacy in operating room from the perspectives of patients and staff.

This is a descriptive cross sectional study. Participants in the study included 204 operating room staff and 323 patients undergoing surgery who were selected by convenience sampling. Patients and staff viewpoints were gathered through combining Serenko Fan privacy questionnaires and Noorian in three physical, informational, and psychological dimensions using self-reporting method for staff and interviewing for patients. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and SPSS software version 16.

 The findings of this study showed that the rate of total respect for privacy from the patients’ perspective was 13.6% moderate and 86.4% good. In physical, informational and psychological dimensions, 77.1%, 72.8% and 12.7% of patients, respectively, assessed the status of privacy as good. From the perspectives of the operating room staff, respect for privacy was generally poor in 0.5% of cases, moderate in 5.4% of cases, and good in 94.1% of cases. In physical, informational and psychological dimensions, 89.7%, 95.1% and 71.1% of operating room staff, respectively, assessed the status of privacy as good.

The findings showed that the evaluation of respect for privacy from the perspectives of staff was better than that of patients. The lowest score given by patients and staff was related to the psychological dimension of respect for privacy. Despite the total favorable status of respect for privacy from the perspectives of patients and staff, taking the necessary strategies is required to improve the current status