Abstract
Introduction. Patient privacy is one of the basic requirements of professional ethics, patient dignity and person centered care in the spiritual care system of nursing. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between spiritual attitude and patient privacy in nursing care in teaching hospitals affiliated to Maragheh University of Medical Sciences.
Method. This study was a descriptive and analytical study in which 203 nurses working in hospitals affiliated to Maragheh University of Medical Sciences were selected by census method. To measure attitude towards spirituality and spiritual care, the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS) was used and to measure patient privacy, the Persian version of PPS designed by Ozturk et al. After collecting data using SPSS v21 software and independent t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient, information was presented in the form of descriptive tables and analytical tests.
Results. Data analysis showed that the attitude towards spirituality and spiritual care in nurses of Maragheh teaching hospitals was moderate (42.94 ± 9.528). While the patient's privacy score is lower than average (51.43 ± 14.107). The correlation between patient privacy and attitude towards spirituality and spiritual care of nurses using linear regression showed a significant relationship (P-value <0.0001). This relationship was also significant in all aspects of privacy (P-value <0.0001).
Conclusion. All human beings have a potential spiritual orientation, and with the support of reason and learning, the spiritual attitude can be modified. In spiritual care, activities such as respecting, maintaining privacy, listening to the patient and helping to be aware of the disease process are considered basic principles and nurses with a positive and acceptable spiritual attitude can play a very important role in the proper implementation of spiritual care, especially privacy.