Abstract

Respecting patients’ rights determines physicians appropriate professional practice. Respecting those rights is equally a moral and legal obligation. This also applies to professional training of medical students. Besides theoretical knowledge, during clinical practice students should learn appropriate behaviors with respect to patients’ rights directly from their academic teachers – physicians who are often their first role models.

The aim of this paper was to study the opinions of medical students on respecting patients’ rights by medical personnel, as well as by themselves during clinical practice.

The study showed that only 46.7% of the students were informed about the necessity of respecting patients’ rights by the physicians who conducted their clinical practice. 69.1% of the students observed physicians violating patients’ right to dignity. Other medical personnel violated this right according to 64.5% students. 45.5% reported that they observed violations made by other students. According to 79.6% respondents, students respected patients’ right to confidentiality. The majority of students reported that patients’ right to give an informed consent to a student to perform an interview, physical examination or diagnostic and therapeutic procedures was respected.

The research in this field should be continued to provide further insight into the subject of respecting patients’ rights.