Attitudes of Nurses and Hospitalized Patients about the Rights of Psychiatric Clients

Objective: In recent years, protecting the rights of hospitalized psychiatric clients became a key issue in relationship-building and collaborative caretaking. Despite its importance, a few researches have been conducted on assessing the attitudes and expectations of clients and nurses about this issue. This study aimed to compare the nurses and psychiatric clients’ attitudes towards rights of hospitalized clients. Method : In this cross sectional descriptive study, 60 nurses, and 100 clients, who were admitted to various wards of a psychiatric hospital in Shiraz, were included. Data were collected using 2 questionnaires that were designed for nurses (22 questions) and patients (29 questions) about the rights of patients. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The results revealed that most of nurses (55%) and clients (64%) agreed with active participation of the clients in healthcare decision-making. More than half of the clients agreed with the possibility of refusal/withdrawal of the proposed treatment or leaving the hospital despite medical advice. Only 38.3% of nurses agreed with those rules in some clauses (P-value < 0.001). Conclusion: To protect the rights of mentally ill clients, their family, and the society, we should identify weaknesses and shortcomings of the basic rights of this group and make suggestions for their improvement. A legal bill, which covers the rights of mentally ill clients, could be a turning point for improvement of the quality of care as well as increasing clients' satisfaction.