Knowledge and attitude of Saudi health professions' students regarding patient's bill of rights.

Salwa B El-Sobkey,May N Al-Muammar,Alyah M Almoajel

doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2014.73

Salwa B El-Sobkey, May N Al-Muammar + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2014.73

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Abstract

Patient's rights are worldwide considerations. Saudi Patient's Bill of Rights (PBR) which was established in 2006 contained 12 items. Lack of knowledge regarding the Saudi PBR limits its implementation in health facilities. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge of health professions' students at College of Applied Medical Sciences (CAMS) Riyadh Saudi Arabia regarding the existence and content of Saudi PBR as well as their attitude toward its ineffectiveness. A 3-parts survey was used to collect data from 239 volunteer students participated in the study. Data were analyzed by descriptive and analytical statistics using SPSS. RESULTS showed that although the majority of students (96.7%) believe in the ineffectiveness of patient's rights, half (52.3%) of them had perceptual knowledge regarding the existence of Saudi PBR and only 7.9% of them were knowledgeable about some items (1-4 items) of the bill. Privacy and confidentiality of patient was the most common known patient's rights. Students' academic level was not correlated to neither their knowledge regarding the bill existence or its content nor to their attitude toward the bill. The majority of the students (93%) reported that only one course within their curriculum was patient's rights-course related. About one quarter (23.4%) of the students reported that teaching staff used to mention patient's rights in their teaching sessions. The Saudi health professions students at CAMS have positive attitude toward the ineffectiveness of patient's rights nevertheless they showed limited knowledge regarding the existence of Saudi PBR and its contents. CAMS curriculums do not support the subject of patient's rights.

Highlights

Deliberating the Patient’s Bill of Rights (PBR) is one of the major human ethical and legal principles (1)
About half (52.3%) of the students perceived that they are knowledgeable regarding the existence of Saudi PBR (Figure 2a)
7.9% of the students were knowledgeable about some items (1–4 items) of the 12 items of Saudi PBR (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Deliberating the Patient’s Bill of Rights (PBR) is one of the major human ethical and legal principles (1). The PBR are listed guarantees for those receiving medical care (3) emphasizing on care and treatment rights (1). The PBR are generated to ensure the ethical treatment of all patients, to help patients feel more confident in the healthcare system, to assure that the healthcare system is fair and it works to meet patients’ needs, to encourage patients to take an active role in staying or getting healthy, to stress the importance of a strong relationship between patients and their healthcare providers, and to provide high quality healthcare (3–6). Lack of respect to PBR may lead to hazards for security and health situation of patients, may decreases efficiency, effectiveness, and suitable care of patients (3). Patient’s rights vary in different countries often depending upon prevailing cultural and social norms but there is growing international consensus that they include privacy, confidentiality of medical information, treatment refusal, proper information on healthcare services, consultation on

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