Knowledge and Attitude of Saudi Health Professions’ Students Regarding Patient’s Bill of Rights

Document Type: Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Rehabilitation Health Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

2 Department of Community Health Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background
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.
 
Method
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
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.
 
Conclusion
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.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

 

 

  1. Tabei SZ, Azar MR, Mahmoodian F, Mohammadi N, Farhadpour H, Ghahramani Y, et al. Investigation of the Awareness of the Students of Shiraz Dental School Concerning the Patients’ Rights and the Principles of Ethics in Dentistry. J Dent Shiraz Univ Med Scien 2013; 14: 20-4.  
  2. World Health Organization (WHO). Patient rights [internet]. [cited 2013 December 15]. Available from:  http://www.who.int/genomics/public/patientrights/en/
  3. Mastaneh Z, Mouseli L.  Patients’ Awareness of Their Rights: Insight from a Developing Country. Int J Health Policy Manag 2013; 1:143–6. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2013.26
  4. Hakan O, Ozgür C, Ergönen AA, Onder M, Meral D. Midwives and nurses awareness of patients’ rights. Midwifery 2009; 25: 756-65. doi: 10.1016/j.midw.2008.01.010
  5. Ghodsi Z, Hojjatoleslami S. Knowledge of students about Patient Rights and its relationship with some factors in Iran. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 2012; 31: 345. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.065
  6. Alghanim SA. Assessing knowledge of the patient bill of rights in central Saudi Arabia: a survey of primary health care providers and recipients. Ann Saudi Med 2012; 32: 151-5.
  7. Ministry of health portal. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Health tips: Patient’s Bill of Rights and responsibilities [internet]. Available at http://www.moh.gov.sa/en/healthawarness/educationalcontent/healthtips/pages/tips-2011-1-29-001.aspx
  8. Almoajel AM. Hospitalized patients awareness of their rights in Saudi governmental hospitals. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 2012; 11: 329-35. 
  9. Saleh HA, Khereldeen MM. Physicians’ perception towards patients’ rights in two governmental hospitals in Mecca, KSA. Int J  Pure Appl Sci Technol 2013; 17: 37-47.
  10. Habib FM, Al-Siber HS. Assessment of awareness and source of information of patients’ rights: a cross-sectional survey in Riyadh Saudi Arabia. American Journal of Research Communication 2013; 1: 1-9.
  11. Ranjbar M, Samiehzargar A, Dehghani A. Evaluation of clinical training of students in teaching hospitals of Yazd Patient Rights. Journal on Medical Ethics, Special Patient Rights 2010; 3: 51-60.
  12. Alahmad G, Dierickx K. What do Islamic institutional fatwas say about medical and research confidentiality and breach confidentiality? Dev World Bioeth 2012; 12: 104–12. Doi: 10.1111/j.1471-8847.2012.00329.x
  13. Peeling RW, Saxena A. Books & Electronic Media. Medical Ethics Manual. Bull World Health Organ 2006; 84:159-160.
 

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

Volume 3, Issue 3
August 2014
Pages 117-122

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics