Patient’s Rights as Perceived by Nurses and Patients

Abstract

Background:Patient's rights are an important issue for achieving quality in health care. Patient`s rights are a comprehensive statement that helps patients to understand their rights and responsibilities. The aim: to investigate perception of the patients versus nurses regarding patient's bill of rights. Design: comparative descriptive study was used. Setting: the study conducted at Diarb Negm general hospital. Subjects: Two groups of subjects were included in the present study: nurses group and patients`patients`group. Tool: one questionnaire sheet which includes two parts: first part was personal characteristics; and the second part was patient`s bill of rights Questionnaire sheet. Results: the study showed that most of nurses had a positive perception toward patient`s rights, also, most of patients had a positive perception toward patient`s rights. Conclusion: the study findings showed that there is a significant difference in perception in two study group (nurses and patients) especially in the perception of general rights. Recommendation: the study recommended that the concept of patient`s rights should be included in the undergraduate and postgraduate study in nursing. The hospital should foster patientsàwareness of their rights.