Evaluation of obtained informed consents from patients undergoing gynecological surgery in a hospital in shiraz during 2014

Patients have the right to make decision about their medical care. Thus, all the available information regarding decision-making should be provided for them. In surgical context, informed consent is essential for therapeutic relationship between patient and surgeon and sustains mutual trust and shared responsibility for decision making. Thus before surgery, the surgeon should describe available treatments, benefits and harms of them to the patients. So the patient can make a correct decision. In this cross-sectional study, 200 patients underwent gynecological surgery in a hospital in Shiraz during 2014 were recruited. The questionnaire which was used in this study had three parts. The validity and reliability of the questionnaires were evaluated using expert panel and SPSS software. In this study, there was no significant association between age, marriage status, job, home place, emergency or elective surgery and the amount of informed consent. There was significant difference between patients with primary school education and patients with higher education. Patients’ participation in decision making was 57%. Patients’ information about their rights in hospital and the amount of reading informed consent form were poor. This survey shows that the amount of informed consent obtained from patients is poor. So, we should consider some changes in content and obtaining informed consent.