Awareness of Patient Rights Charter In Nurses and Physicians of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in 2009

Customer satisfaction is a factor in the efficacy of a hospital. To attain this goal, patients rights should be observed. Thus, all medical staff, especially physicians and nurses, should be aware of charter of patient rights and ought to observe it. This study was a descriptive analytical of cross-sectional one. Subjects of the study were 132 nurses and 55 hospital physicians. Instrument of data collection comprised two parts; the first part includes demographic information (age, sex, marital status, work experience, ward work, hospital work) and the second part was related to the awareness of evaluated 21 different legal situations in nurses and physicians about the charter of the patient rights. The results revealed that mean score of physician awareness of the charter of patient rights was 15.12, which determines the level of the physician awareness was good. The mean score of nurses awareness of the charter of the patient rights was 13.45, which determines their level of awareness was moderate. Generally, the level of awareness of the charter of the patient rights in physicians was more than nurses’. According to the findings, health service providers, specifically the medical staff, should be aware of tenor of the charter of patient rights and it is essential for hospital managers to run policies that make a ground for observing this charter.