A Study on Protecting Patients' Privacy of Obstetric and Gynecologic Nurses

Kim, Miok

doi:2012.18.4.268

Korean J Women Health Nurs > Volume 18(4); 2012 > Article

Original Article

Korean Journal of Women Health Nursing 2012;18(4):268-278.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4069/kjwhn.2012.18.4.268 Published online December 31, 2012.

A Study on Protecting Patients' Privacy of Obstetric and Gynecologic Nurses

Miok Kim

Department of Nursing, Namseoul University, Cheonan, Korea. aprilsea@hanmail.net

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study aims to determine obstetric and gynecologic (OBGY) nurses' perception and performance propecting patients' privacy, and to contribute to develop educational program and improve the quality of nursing care.
METHODS
206 OBGY nurses in 6 hospitals using an electronic medical record or an order communicating system were chosen by convenience sampling and agreed to participate in the study. The questionnaire, explored 4 domains of privacy: direct nursing, linked business, patient information management, communication with relatives.
RESULTS
Perception and performance of protecting patient privacy averaged 4.29 (of 5) and 3.55 (of 5), respectively. Most nurses (94.2%) recognized the importance of protecting patient privacy, 80.1% received patient privacy education. There was a distinct difference between the perception and performance of protecting patient privacy of nurses. Performance of protecting patient privacy had a positive correlation with perception.
CONCLUSION
Proper performance of protecting privacy protection requires improving perception of each nurse on the patient privacy, and various efforts should be made to minimize the affect from external factors such as hospital environment. It is needed to educate nurses for patient privacy. It is also needed for medical organizations to improve their policies and facilities to ease the performance for privacy protection.

Key Words: Nursing; Privacy; Medical information