INTRODUCTION:

Possessing ethical intelligence and cognitive flexibility can play a significant role in the acceptable performance of nurses. Furthermore, respecting the privacy of patients should always be a primary ethical principle that nurses focus on. This study aimed to investigate the ethical intelligence and cognitive flexibility of nurses and their role in predicting the level of patients' privacy observance. Also, determining the overall status of patient privacy protection and its two domains, namely human dignity domain and maintaining personal privacy, were specific objectives of this study.

METHODS:

This cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study was conducted in 2022. A sample of 340 nurses and 1067 patients from teaching hospitals affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in southern Iran were selected. Standard questionnaires of ethical intelligence and cognitive flexibility were used for nurses, and a privacy observance questionnaire was used for patients. Data were analyzed using t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression with the SPSS23 software.

RESULTS:

The mean score of ethical intelligence and cognitive flexibility for nurses was 98.33 ± 18.06 (out of 200) and 74.56 ± 16.76 (out of 140), respectively. The mean score of patients' privacy observance was 79.74 ± 14.53 (out of 150). The results of multiple linear regression showed that the dimensions of perseverance and assertiveness towards rights (ß = 0.540, p < 0.001), action based on principles, values, and beliefs (ß = 0.454, p < 0.001), responsibility towards personal decisions (ß = 0.410, p < 0.001), accepting responsibility for serving others (ß = 0.393, p < 0.001), ability to forgive one's mistakes (ß = 0.301, p = 0.001), ability to forgive others' mistakes (ß = 0.287, p = 0.002), honesty (ß = 0.275, p = 0.004), acknowledgment of mistakes and failures (ß = 0.263, p = 0.005), commitment to promises (ß = 0.242, p = 0.005), and interest in others (ß = 0.237, p = 0.01) from the dimensions of ethical intelligence, as well as the dimensions of perceived control (ß = 0.580, p < 0.001), perception of multiple solutions (ß = 0.511, p < 0.001), and perception of justifications (ß = 0.373, p < 0.001) from the dimensions of cognitive flexibility had a positive and significant effect on the level of patients' privacy observance.

CONCLUSION:

Ethical intelligence and cognitive flexibility of nurses and the level of patient privacy protection were estimated to be at a moderate level. Also, the level of ethical intelligence and cognitive flexibility of nurses played a predictive role in the level of patients' privacy observance. It is suggested that hospital managers and policymakers enhance nurses' ethical intelligence and cognitive flexibility through educational, welfare, managerial, motivational, and job-related programs, thereby improving the status of patient privacy protection.