Awareness of Patient's Rights Charter among Paramedical Intern Students in Lorestan University of Medical Science

A Charter of Patient's Rights is one of the means to improve and strengthen the health system and patient satisfaction. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate awareness of paramedical intern students about Patient's Rights Charter in Lorestan University of Medical Sciences. This cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study was performed in 2014. The study population included all of the paramedical intern students in Lorestan University of Medical Sciences. Due to the limited number of population (69 people), they participated in the study with census method. The data-gathering tool was a valid and reliable questionnaire based on the elements of Iran patient's rights developed by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME).The collected data were analyzed by descriptive and analytical statistics using SPSS 16 software. The results show that in 1.45 percent of the cases, the total awareness of students was weak, in 81.16 percent was moderate, and in 17.39 percent of them was good. The highest level of awareness was about the patient's rights in receiving the optimal health services (%81.1), and the lowest was about the patient's right to choose and decide freely on health services (%1.45). There was a significant relationship between gender and the students’ awareness. Total awareness of the students from patient's bill of rights was medium. Therefore, greater emphasis should be placed on inclusion and support of patient's rights in course and curriculum planning for paramedical students.