Awareness of the rights of psychiatric patients and its observance from the perspective of patients and nurses: a descriptive study

Paying attention to the rights of psychiatric patients, protecting and observing their rights is one of the challenging issues of the health system. One of the most important components of providing humanistic and ethical care is awareness of the ethical concepts and rights of the patient.

This descriptive-analytical study was performed in 2013 on 100 patients and 43 nurses in Ahvaz. Data collection tools were a researcher-made three-part questionnaire including demographic information, measuring patientchr('39')s awareness and patientschr('39') rights, which were used after validity and reliability. SPSS16 software and descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation, variance and correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data.

A total of 143 people participated in the study that the level of knowledge of nurses and patients about the rights of the mentally ill were 79.1% and 36%, respectively, and the level of observance of these rights in nurses and patients were 51.2% and 30%, respectively. The level was good. There was no significant difference between the level of knowledge and the level of observance of psychiatric patientschr('39') rights in the two groups, respectively (P = Value: 0.996 and P = Value: 0.411).

The level of knowledge and the level of observance of mental patients chr('39')rights in nurses was at a good and average level, but this level was very low in patients and the level of patientschr('39') rights was at a good level. Given that it is the right of every patient to be aware of their rights, health care providers should inform patients of their rights from the beginning of their admission and provide the necessary training in this regard to the best of their understanding.