Nurse Interns' Perception Regarding Patients' Rights and Advocacy

Hussein Abdel-Fattah, Samar; Mostafa Shazly, Mona; Fathi Saad, Nema

doi:10.21608/ejhc.2022.243488

Nurse Interns' Perception Regarding Patients' Rights and Advocacy

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Nursing Administration Department

² Professor of Nursing Administration

³ Assist professor of Nursing Administration-Faculty of Nursing -Ain Shams University

10.21608/ejhc.2022.243488

Abstract

Background: Although respecting patient rights is crucial in the provision of quality
care, patient rights and advocacy are often missed in nursing practice. Study aim: to assess
the nurse interns' perception regarding patients' rights and advocacy.Research design:
Adescriptive design was used. Subjects: study was conducted in the four Ain Shams
University Hospitals on 111 nurse interns. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire with
2 tools for patient bill of rights and patient advocacy was used in data collection. The
fieldwork lasted from February to April 2021. Results: Nurse interns’ age ranged between
21 and 27 years, median 23.0 years, with almost equal gender distribution. Overall, 66.7% of
the nurse interns had high perception of patient rights, and 80.2% had high perception of
patient advocacy rights. A significant positive correlation was found between the scores of
perceptions of patient rights and of advocacy (r=0.565). Female gender and awareness of the
patient right bill were positive predictors of the patient right perception score, while for the
advocacy score, female gender, family size, and previous training were positive predictors
and age and night shift work were negative predictors. Conclusion : Nurse interns'
perception of patient rights is suboptimal, while their perception of advocacy is higher, and
both are positively correlated. Recommendations :Nursing internship program shouid give
more emphasis to the area of patient rights and advocacy. The hospital administration should
foster staff awareness of patient rights. Further research is proposed to explore the barriers
that prevent nurses from advocating patients.

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