SAĞLIK ÇALIŞANLARININ BİLGİ GÜVENLİĞİNE YÖNELİK DEĞERLENDİRMELERİ

Abstract

YİĞİT, Dilek. Evaluations of Healthcare Professionals towards Information Security, Master’s Thesis, Ankara, 2025 Information security refers to a whole of processes aimed at ensuring the integrity, availability, and secure management of information during its storage, protection, and transfer. This study aims to assess healthcare professionals' evaluations and awareness regarding information security, focusing on its subdimensions: ‘’security policies’’, ‘’security practices’’, ‘’organizational security’’, ‘’access and authorization’’, ‘’service delivery’’. Additionally, the study seeks to understand how professional and individual differences shape healthcare professionals' attitudes toward information security. The study population includes physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals (health officers, medical secretaries, laboratory specialists, and healthcare technicians/technologists) working in one private and one public hospital in Ankara. The hospitals were stratified into public and private categories, and the number of questionnaires distributed to participants was determined based on the weight of each stratum in the population. The study sample consisted of a total of 350 healthcare professionals. The surveys were conducted between May 13, 2024, and September 20, 2024. To measure participants' awareness of information security, the "Information Security Awareness Scale," developed by Upfold & Sewry (2005) and validated in Turkish by Kılıç Aksu (2014), was applied. The analysis demonstrated that the overall mean score on the information security scale was 3.42, reflecting a moderate level of awareness. Among the subdimensions, "Service Delivery" had the highest mean score, whereas "Security Practices" and "Security Policies" recorded the lowest scores. Statistically significant differences were identified in the overall information security scores and sub-dimension scores based on participants' demographic characteristics and the ownership structure of their employing hospitals. Specifically, it was found that women, younger participants, nurses, high school graduates, those with less work experience, and those working in private hospitals had significantly higher information security scores compared to other groups. Raising awareness among healthcare workers about security practices and policies, clearly communicating access and authorization procedures, and integrating information security training into organizational security and service delivery processes are of critical importance. Moreover, these training programs should include adjustments to align with the specific characteristics of healthcare professionals, such as their professional roles, age, gender, and education levels.

Keywords Information Management, Information Systems, Information Security, Healthcare Institutions, Healthcare Professionals, Healthcare Management.