Privacy and dignity of cancer patients: a qualitative study of patients privacy in UK National Health Service patient care settings.
BACKGROUND
I undertook this research to determine the extent to which privacy and dignity of National Health Service (NHS) patients were respected by health practitioners.


METHODS
I used the principles of ethnography to undertake fieldwork observation of 3 wards within a general hospital to interpret the culture of the wards and its impact on the perception and behaviors of patients and staff. I used grounded theory and phenomenology to analyze the perceptions and experiences.


RESULTS
I organized the data into 11 key categories. I adopted the classic works of Goffman as interpretative tools, which led to the formation of a privacy model.


CONCLUSIONS
Analysis of the categories established that patients had very little privacy in acute wards of NHS hospitals.
Woogara
Jay
J
University of Surrey, UK. r.woogara@surrey.ac.uk
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D018907:Privacy; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D013222:State Medicine; D006113:United Kingdom; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*