A Survey of Respecting “Patient Privacy” by Medical Emergency Team, from the Viewpoint of Cardiovascular Patients Transported to Hospitals Affiliated with Urmia University of Medical Sciences in 2014

Akram Mehmandust¹, Zahra Safavi Bayat^2*, Hossein Habibzadeh³ and Farid Zayeri⁴

¹Msc in Critical Care Nursing, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, International Branch, Tehran, Iran. ²Ph.D Student in Nursing and Faculty Member (instructor) of School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. ³Assistant Professor and Faculty Member of School of Nursing and Midwifery, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, West Azarbaijan, Iran. ⁴Faculty Member of Statistics Department, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/1599

ABSTRACT: Nowadays patient privacy is considered a part of the patient’s rights as the basis and foundation of treatment and care, and practicing it is one of the main goals of the health care system. Under the concept of privacy, four functional categories could be analysed: independence, protection of privacy, security, and recognition of identity. The goal of this study is to determine the amount of respecting physical, information and psychosocial privacy of cardiovascular patients by paramedics. This research is a descriptive study. In this study 303 cardio vascular patients, who were transferred to two hospitals affiliated with Urmia University of Medical Sciences, were chosen and studied using convenience sampling. The data collection tool, a questionnaire, consisted of two sections: first part is a demographic specifications questionnaire, and the second part is a privacy questionnaire concerning various aspects of privacy; including physical privacy (9 questions), information privacy (5 questions), and psychosocial privacy (16 questions). The information was analysed using descriptive statistics in statistical package of SPSS (version 20). The results show that in all aspects, the majority of patients expressed a high degree of respect of their privacy. However, regarding physical privacy 33% of patients complained that staff did not introduce themselves to patients, and 46% stated staff did not ask for permission to sit next to them. As for information privacy 29% stated enough information was not given about their disease and current condition. There was a significant association with some demographic variables. Although the degree of observing the privacy of the majority of patients was at a satisfying level in general, some cases of physical and information privacy are not fully respected. Therefore, officials and clinicians need to pay special attention to this matter, and its education. Furthermore, effective measures are necessary to guarantee patient satisfaction.

KEYWORDS: Physical Privacy; Information Privacy; Psychosocial Privacy; Medical Emergency Team; Cardiovascular Patients

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