Status of Respect for Dignity of Hospitalized Patients from Nurses’ Perspectives: A Descriptive, Cross-Sectional Study in 2018

Introduction: Dignity is a key human right. Diseases and disorders are serious threats to human dignity and patients are afraid of losing their dignity. From the time of admission and hospitalization to discharge from the hospital, the patients feel they are losing their dignity in the hospital. The present study aimed to investigate status of respect for dignity of hospitalized patients from nurses’ perspective in teaching hospitals in Jahrom town in 2018. Method: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study. The participants consisted of 170 nurses working in educational hospitals in Jahrom town in 2018. Data collection instruments were demographic questionnaire and human dignity questionnaire (from nurses’ perspectives). Collected data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with SPSS v. 21. Results: average age of the nurses participating in this study was 28 ± 5.42. The score of patient privacy was 2.27 ± 0.46. The score of patient autonomy was 2.20 ± 0.51. The score of respectful relationship with patients was 2.27 ± 0.60. Conclusion: patient dignity and its aspects (patient privacy, respectful relationship with patients, patient autonomy and their sub-components) were reported desirable or relatively desirable. Keywords: dignity, patients, nurses