title: The influence of nurses' attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on maintaining patients' privacy in a hospital setting.
abstract: The research reported in this article examined the influence of nurses' attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on maintaining patients' privacy during hospitalization. The data were gathered from 109 nurses in six internal medicine wards at an Israeli hospital. The research was based on the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior. A positive and significant correlation was shown between nurses' attitude to promoting and maintaining patient privacy and their planned behavior, while perceived behavioral control was the best variable for predicting the nurses' behavior. Better educated nurses believed that they had fewer resources and anticipated more obstacles in acting to promote and maintain patient privacy. This research adds a new dimension to what is already known about nurses' attitudes to maintaining patients' privacy, nurses' planned behavior and their actual behavior. The practical implications of the findings are the identification of factors that influence the attitudes and behavior of nursing staff, which, in turn, will enable allocation of resources for solving difficulties and removing obstacles. The results will allow the formulation of educational programs to guide staff and also the application of policies based on both patient and nursing staff needs.
authors.affiliation: Nursing Department, PO Box 39040, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, 61390 Tel-Aviv, Israel. ntabak@post.tau.ac.il
authors.forename: Nili
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tabak
authors.forename: Meirave
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ozon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003219:Confidentiality; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D016134:Organizational Policy; D010362:Patients' Rooms; D018907:Privacy; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012925:Social Conformity; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D012945:Social Values