Korean Journal of Medical Ethics

The Korean Society for Medical Ethics

Korean J Med Ethics 2008; 11(2):191-200

pISSN: 2005-8284, eISSN: 2234-3598

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35301/ksme.2008.11.2.191

Article

Korean Nurses' Awarenss of Patients' Rights in Hospitals

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Yong-Soon Kim¹, Moon-Sook Yoo¹, Jin Hee Park¹^,^*

¹College of Nursing, Ajou University

^*Corresponding Author: Jin Hee Park. College of Nursing, Ajou University. Tel: 82-31-219-7019. jhee@ajou.ac.kr

ⓒ Copyright 2008 The Korean Society for Medical Ethics. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Dec 31, 2008

ABSTRACT

Patients’ rights and patient–nurse relationships in nursing practice have been viewed increasingly as essential aspects of nursing care. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted between August 1 and 30, 2005 to examine 618 Korean nurses’ awareness of patients’ rights regarding autonomy, informed consent, privacy, and confidentiality. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire. The results indicate that nurses have little awareness of the importance of patients’ rights regarding autonomy, privacy, and confidentiality. As an understanding of these rights is essential to good clinical practice, this study suggests that there is a need for education programs focused on understanding the legal and ethical rights of patients in the care of nurses.

Keywords: Patients’ rights; Autonomy; Informed consent; Privacy; Confidentiality