Awareness of patients’ rights among medical professionals

Abstract

Objectives Assessing awareness of patient rights among medical professionals in Poland. Material and methods Three data sources were analysed. The Commissioner for Patient’s Right (the CPR) own material was analysed and a comparative method was used. A meta-analysis of national and international articles was conducted. An analysis of academic health professions curricula was carried out and the comparative method was used. Results The data obtained from the analysis of the CPR’s data provide a picture of the issue from the perspective of the patients’ notifications. In addition, there is a correlation between respect for patient rights and the quality of medical care. The meta-analysis cannot be considered complete due to insufficient data. The analysis of the curricula should be considered as a preliminary work for an extensive study of academic education of the medical professionals in terms of patient rights. Conclusions The awareness of patient’s rights is increasing. However, patient rights are still not sufficiently promoted among the medical staff. A gap has been noted between the staff's belief in their knowledge of patient rights and the actual implementation of these rights. In hospitals, for patients the main source of knowledge about the patient’s rights are nurses, not doctors. It is also noteworthy that teachers and researchers use outdated sources in a situation in which the law in question has been in force since 2009.

Keywords

• adverse effects
• medical education
• medical professionals
• patient’s rights
• commissioner for patient’s rights
• quality in healthcare