Abstract:

Introduction and Aim:
Observance of the patient’s rights is the legal duty of all the employees of a medical-services- rendering entity, in particular doctors and nurses. It also constitutes a crucial factor affecting the quality of health care. The aim of the study was to attempt to assess the satisfaction of patients with the level of observance of the patient’s rights by nurses working at the Polyclinic of the Central Teaching Hospital of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Material and Methods:
110 patients (65 women and 45 men; mean age: 55 yrs, min. 16, max. 95) of the Polyclinic of the Central Teaching Hospital of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw. Education: medium-level – 50, higher – 31, vocational – 23, basic – 6 patients. Professionally active people – 49, pensioners (disability/old-age) – 44. Mean duration of making use of medical services – 16 yrs (min. 1 yr, max. 60 yrs). Voluntary and anonymous questionnaire survey, from January to March 2013, own questionnaire, 17 questions. Descriptive statistics.

Results:
75% of the respondents declared that nurses at the Polyclinic of the Central Teaching Hospital of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs respect the patient’s rights. 95 of the respondents declared that nurses inform patients about nursing procedures performed, ask for consent to nursing procedures (81 respondents), respect the patient’s right to confidentiality (79 respondents) and respect the patient’s intimacy during the performance of nursing procedures (102 respondents). Only 49 patients declared that nurses inform patients about the possibility of their getting acquainted with the Charter of the Patient’s Rights.

Conclusions:
1. In the study group, the patients were satisfied with the level of observance of their rights by nurses.
2. Given the pilot character of the study the research should be continued on a larger and more differentiated group of nurses. The results of the study can, however, be of practical value and have a crucial impact on the functioning of the unit.

Keywords:

Patient’s rights, nursing staff, polyclinic.