Privacy: a review of the literature

The concept of privacy is used in many disciplines and is recognised as one of the important concepts also in nursing. In this review, a description a bout the perspectives and dimensions of the concept will be made and empiri cal studies in the area will be analysed. Perspectives include units experi encing privacy, desired-achieved state, and reactiveness. Dimensions are di vided into physical, psychological, social and informational. In the empiri cal studies, the concept of the privacy has mainly been studied in hospital organisations using the physical dimension. The concept needs further clar ification in future. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.