Patients' Rights: Awareness of the Pediatric Patients’ Guardians Attending Benha University Hospital.

Introduction: The majority of the patients would do nothing when facing problems or harm in the hospital if they ignore their rights or how to insist on them. Objectives: The objectives of this cross sectional study were to assess the awareness of the pediatric patients’ guardians about Patients’ Rights and to detect the factors associated with this awareness. Subjects and Methods: An interview questionnaire sheet was completed by 375 guardians; it included items about their socio-demographic characters and items to assess their awareness about the term of Patients’ Rights and its components. Results: About 75% of the interviewed child guardians were familiar with the term of patient’s rights, but only 4.8% of them reported they saw a post showing the patients' rights in the hospital. The guardians showed high awareness regarding some rights rather than others. Urban residents were significantly (P<0.05) more aware of two rights than rural ones. There was a significant association between the age of the sick child and the awareness of his guardian about another two rights P (<0.05). Being familiar with the term of "Patients' Rights" and most of its components increased significantly (P<0.05) with higher educational levels of the guardians. Guardians of children with chronic diseases were significantly more familiar with the term (P=0.004). Conclusion: Although a good percentage of the studied guardians were familiar with the term of patients’ rights, about one quartet of them did not know that their sick children have rights