Abstract

Advances and developments in medical science have greatly extended the scope of medical interventions in recent decades, which has raised numerous ethical challenges in this domain. Therefore, the present study investigated levels of awareness of a patient's bill of rights and its observance in 2015 in hospitals in the city of Ilam in Iran among patients with heart disease. In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 200 patients with heart problems admitted to hospitals in Ilam were recruited using the convenience sampling method. The research instrument was a three-part questionnaire about a patient's bill of rights completed using the interview method. The data were analyzed via SPSS Version 21 with respect to descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations), inferential tests (Pearson's correlations), and interpreted at a statistical significance cutoff of 0.05. Analysis of awareness of a patient's bill of rights revealed that 38 (76) had poor awareness, 59.5 (119) had moderate awareness, and five participants (5) had good awareness. Regarding observance of a patient's bill of rights, 22 (44) had a poor level of awareness, 34.5 (69) reported moderate awareness, and 43.5 (69) had high awareness. Moreover, no statistically significant difference was found between the level of awareness of a patient's bill of rights and its observance. Only a small number of patients had good levels of awareness of a patient's bill of rights. Thus, healthcare policymakers must take the necessary steps regarding patients' awareness of a patient's bill of rights.