The Relationship between Moral Intelligence of Emergency Personnel with the Level of Respect for Patients' Privacy in the Emergency Departments, Zanjan, Iran, 2018

Background and Aim: Respect for patientschr('39') privacy is especially important in the emergency department. The present study was conducted to determine the relationship between the moral intelligence of emergency personnel with the level of respect for patient privacy in the emergency departments of hospitals affiliated to Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 154 patients and 77 emergency department staff participated by convenience sampling method. Demographic, moral intelligence and patient privacy questionnaires were used to collect data. Data were analyses by SPSS software version 16. Results: The mean age of employees was 34.04±7.6 years (range 24-54 years old), and the mean age of patients was 38.8±13.4 years (range of 18-76 years old). Employeeschr('39') moral intelligence was 76.96±8.42 and was in a good category. Also, the level of respect for patient privacy in the emergency departments was 85.63±13.88 and was in the moderate category. There was a significant and inverse relationship between employees’ moral intelligence with patientschr('39') physical privacy (r=-0.226) (p=0.048). Conclusion: Considering the moderate level of respect to patient privacy in the emergency departments in the present study, it seems that in addition to the lack of staff information in this regard, the factors affecting it needs to be studied and paid special attention.