Nurse's Perception of their Protective Role in Educational Hospitals of Kerman University of Medical Science

Patients'' protection is a key concept of the nursing ethics that assist in the maintenance of the patients'' autonomy and their decision-making. The nurses'' perception of this matter is effective in the occurrence of the protective behavior toward the patients and this study aims at measuring the nurses'' perception in this respect. The data of this descriptive-analytical study were collected per quotas from among 385 nurses in 4 educational hospitals of Kerman University of Medical Science by using a researcher-made questionnaire and were analyzed in two descriptive and analytical levels by using SPSS software. The results show that the average nurses'' perception of their protective role toward patients is relatively positive. Nevertheless, the necessity to find ways for the increase of the nurses'' perception in this regard seems necessary noting the importance of the patients'' rights.