Objective To understand the status of patient privacy protection by hemodialysis nurses and to explore the influencing factors. Methods Totally, 960 hemodialysis nurses from 78 hospitals across China were investigated with the Patient Privacy Scale. Results Nurses′ perception scores of patient privacy protection was 126.67±12.72, and nurses′ behavior scores was 115.31±17.40. More than 60.0% of the nurses believed that patient privacy breach was due to inadequate material supplies in the department they worked with, and shortage of nurses, and 45.10 % blamed the absence of patient privacy protection code in the department they worked with for patient privacy breach. Multi-variate linear regression analysis showed that, ages, training experience, and trai-ning intention were the influencing factors of nurses′ perception of patient privacy protection; positions, training experience and knowledge level of privacy protection laws contributed to influence nurses′ behaviors of patient privacy protection（P＜0.01 for all）. Conclusion There were inconsistency in nurses′perception and behavior of patient privacy protection.Insufficient privacy protection behaviors are caused by inadequate material supplies, absence of patient privacy protection code, inadequate training for nurses, poor knowledge level of privacy protection laws, managers′ failure to play a good exemplary role.Measures should be taken to constantly improve the above mentioned factors, turn nurses′ perception into privacy protection behaviors, establish patient privacy protection code, and provide adequate materials for nurses, in an effort to guarantee privacy protection practice by hemo-dialysis nurses.