Privacy Recognition by Nurses and Necessity of Their Information Security Education

Abstract

Because of advanced computerization, the number of hospitals in whichnurses use computers to collect, check, input, and record patientinformation has increased. The expectation for subjective andresponsible behaviors by individual nurses has increased along withchanges in society. Clarifying nurses' recognition and securitybehaviors regarding patient privacy is important for patients andmedical staff. The present study revealed that hospitals follow variousinformation security measures, but some of the nurses working in thehospitals did not recognize any concrete security-maintaining measures;40% of responding nurses answered that the range of information sharingcould be restricted within each occupational group from the viewpoint ofpatients' privacy rights. In addition, some of the nurses were makingefforts to hide a portion of patient information in their hospitals. Inother cases, patients gave nurses concrete requests. Patients' knowledgeof information privacy and their attitudes toward the privacy ofpatients may have begun to change. Because hospitals' electronizationwill continue to increase in the future, comprehensive informationsecurity education is important not only for nurses but for all othermedical staff.