Patients’ awareness of patient rights in Iranian hospitals

The set of laws in the field of patient ethics, under the title of "Patient's Rights Charter", was compiled for the first time in Iran in ۲۰۰۲ to improve communication between patients and health care providers. The objective of this study was to investigate the level of patients' awareness of patient rights in Iranian hospitals.Methods: In this review study, English keywords included "Awareness, Patient, Patient Rights, Iran" were searched in PubMed and Google Scholar to find English articles, and similar Persian keywords were searched in Google Scholar, Magiran, and SID to find Persian articles (from ۲۰۰۳ to ۲۰۲۳). After checking the titles and abstracts of the found articles and removing duplicates, ۲۶ articles were selected and included in the study.Results: The findings of this review study showed that patients' awareness of patient's rights is at a weak level. The highest level of awareness was about the trust and confidence of the treatment team's confidentiality and awareness of their expertise and skill. The lowest level of awareness was related to providing sufficient information about treatment options and the treatment process. In most of the studies, a significant relationship was observed between educational level and patient's awareness of their rights.Conclusion: The results obtained from this study indicated that patients did not have proper knowledge of their rights, and they were completely unaware of some provisions of the patient's bill of rights. Therefore, it is suggested to take the necessary actions to increase the awareness of patients. Actions include comprehensive and complete planning, educational progarams, presenting the patient's rights charter to patients upon admission in the form of booklets, brochures, or posters, and explaining its contents by the treatment team.

کلیدواژه ها:

Awareness ، Patient ، Patient Rights ، Iran