Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study on the opinion of nursing students of the Medical University of Gdańsk about compliance with the patients’ rights by the medical personnel and by the students during their clinical classes.

The study was carried out in the academic year 2011/2012 using survey methods with the use of a proprietary questionnaire on 66 students of the third nursing undergraduate year and graduate nursing year at the Faculty of Health Sciences Medical University of Gdańsk.

The results of the study show that almost 3/4 of the nursing students (74.2%) is informed at the beginning of the clinical classes about the need to respect the patients’ rights. The vast majority of interviewees met with cases of serious violation of the dignity of the patient by a doctor (75.8%) and by nurses (51.5%) and less than half – by students (37.9%). The vast majority of students respect patients’ privacy and confidentiality (80.3%) and autonomy through their informed consent to allow students to conduct interview (89.4%), physical examination (83.3%) and diagnostic/therapeutic treatment (87.8%). When assessing the implementation of patients’ rights in health facilities most students positively evaluate the implementation of patients’ rights to privacy and confidentiality of data (68.2%) and the implementation of patients’ rights to autonomy (62.1%), however, nearly half of the respondents negatively evaluated the implementation of patients’ rights to respect their dignity (40.9%), as well as patients’ right to information (45.4%).

The most important conclusions of the study include the urgent need to draw attention to the problem of compliance with the patients’ right to respect their dignity. In addition, the obtained results suggest the need to continue research on this topic.

Adres: dr n. hum. Marek Olejniczak
Zakład Etyki GUMed
ul. Tuwima 15, 80-210 Gdańsk
tel. (58) 349 14 86
e-mail: olejniczak@gumed.edu.pl