Evaluation of Patient Rights Practice among Doctors in Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department in Zagazig General Hospital

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

Background: The key competency of health professionals is their ability to protect the health of individuals. The recent developments of the healthcare systems lead to increased hazards in medical practice which raise the importance of knowing and practicing the patient rights. Objective: To evaluate the effect of a training program to improve awareness and knowledge of doctors about patient rights in Zagazig general hospital. Method: The current study is an interventional study that was conducted in Zagazig general hospital. A total of 70 physicians were evaluated regarding patient rights then a training program was conducted and evaluated three months later. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS program version 20 considering statistical significance when P value<0.05. Results: Only 51.4 % of the studied physicians were aware about patients’ rights. There was poor attention to patients’ rights’ practice as more than half of the study population rarely or never paid attention to patients’ rights during practice. About 50 % of participants perceived that patients’ rights have influence on medical practice. In general, there was poor satisfaction from the surveyed physicians about the organizational climate which would explain the poor compliance with the patients’ rights. Implementation of training program resulted in significant improvement in physicians’ knowledge and awareness about patients’ rights. Conclusion There was poor knowledge about patients’ rights. This is related to the organizational climate performance and application of educational program resulted in improved knowledge about patients’ rights

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