Korean J Women Health Nurs KJWHN Korean Journal of Women Health Nursing 2287-1640 2093-7695 Korean Society of Women Health Nursing 10.4069/kjwhn.2012.18.4.268 Original Article A Study on Protecting Patients' Privacy of Obstetric and Gynecologic Nurses Kim Miok Department of Nursing, Namseoul University, Cheonan, Korea. Corresponding author: Kim, Miok. Department of Nursing, Namseoul University, 91 Daehak-ro, Seonghwan-eup, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan 331-707, Korea. Tel: +82-41-580-2716, Fax: +82-41-580-2931, aprilsea@hanmail.net 12 2012 31 12 2012 18 4 268 278 05 10 2012 30 11 2012 10 12 2012 © 2012 Korean Society of Women Health Nursing 2012

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

 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.

 Nursing Privacy Medical information

This work was financially supported by the research fund of Namseoul University in 2012.

 Summary Statement

▪ What is already known about this topic

In order to protect patient privacy, it is necessary to ensure the perception of the healthcare professional on the importance of patient privacy and strengthen their practice for privacy protection.

▪ What this paper adds

Proper performance of protecting patient privacy 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 or the characteristics of the task.

▪ Implication for practice, education and/or policy

It is needed to educate nurses for patient privacy by example cases in each division. It is also needed for medical organizations to improve their policies and facilities to ease the performance for privacy protection.

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Perception and Performance of Protecting Patient Privacy according to General Characteristics (N=206)

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001.

Difference between Perception and Performance of Protecting Patient Privacy (N=206)

PIM=patient information management; †Perception - performance.

*p<.05, ***p<.001.

Situations that Need Special Care for Patient Privacy (N=206)

†Multiple responses.

The Percentage of Privacy-protecting Tasks that couldn't be Performed due to External Reasons (N=206)

***p<.001.

Correlation between Perception and Performance of Protecting Patient Privacy (N=206)

PIM=patient information management.

**p<.01, ***p<.001.

Regression Analysis of Factors on Performance of Protecting Patient Privacy (N=206)

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001.