Background and Aim: Respecting patients’ rights leads in improvement of communication between patient and health care providers and promotion of health services. This study is performed to assess the patients' bill of rights observance in the educational hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.
Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-cross sectional study 137 medical students (interns) were selected form Imam Hosein, Modarres, Taleqani, Mofid, Shohadaye Tajrish, Labbafinejad and Mahdie hospitals by convenience sampling method. We used a questionnaire with 12 questions. Experts of the field confirmed reliability of questionnaire and validity was confirmed by Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient (81%). The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS (v21) using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and Tukey test.
Results: In this study the observance rate of patients’ bill of rights was at a good level in 41.6% of cases, at an average level in 55.5% of cases and at a low level in 2.9% of cases. The best observance rate was for the article “discharge with informed consent” (92.5%) and the lowest observance rate was for the article “participation of patient in selecting treatment alternatives” (46.2%). There was a significant difference between several hospitals in the observance rate of patients’ bill of rights. (p-value = 0.013).
Conclusion: The observance rate of patients’ bill of rights was at an average to good level in most of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences’ hospitals. However, this observance rate is at a low level in some hospitals. Therefore, it is recommended to design and implement educational programs for personnel and patients to promote their awareness about patient rights.
Sharifi M, Bazmi S. Assessment of medical students’ opinion about the patients’ bill of rights observance in the educational hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. pajoohande 2016; 21 (4) :219-223 URL: http://pajoohande.sbmu.ac.ir/article-1-2251-en.html