Nurses’ Attitude towards Patient’s Rights at Erada Mental Health Complex in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia

Background: Patients have a fundamental right to healthcare that is respectful, responsive, safe and effective. Healthcare professionals, especially nurses, have a duty to treat the patient respectfully, listen to concerns, answer questions clearly and honestly, and inform and educate the patient about the illness. Therefore, nurses are required to be knowledgeable and positively oriented towards patients’ rights. Objective: The purpose of the study is to investigate the attitudes of psychiatric nurses at Erada mental health complex in Jeddah city towards patients’ rights. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional research design was adopted in this study. The study used the convenient sampling method to recruit a sample of 171 psychiatric nurses. To collect data, the study used the questionnaire that consisted of two parts: the socio-demographic part and the attitudes towards patient’s rights part (28 statements). Result: The results of the study showed that psychiatric nurses at Erada mental health complex had positive attitudes towards patients’ rights (4.06±0.76). The results showed that the highest positive attitudes were related to those patients should receive healthcare services in safe environment, having the right to choose the healthcare providing institution or change it if needed, and the right to benefit from any provided healthcare services that comply with their medical condition. In addition, it was found that there were no significant statistical differences in the psychiatric nurses’ attitudes towards patients’ rights referred to nurses’ age, gender, or years of experience. Conclusion: The study concluded that psychiatric nurses at Erada mental health complex in Jeddah city had positive attitudes towards patients’ rights and these attitudes are not significantly associated with nurses’ gender, age, and years of experience.