الفهرس 
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Abstract
The right to health and wellbeing is fundamental. Patient rights are basic rules of conduct between patients and healthcare providers, including access to care, dignity and respect, effective communication, privacy and confidentiality, and informed consent. Moreover, patient advocacy is a moral obligation in nursing denoting a responsibility to protect patient rights. Although respecting patient rights is crucial in the provision of quality care, patients have limited knowledge of these rights, and advocacy is often missed in nursing practice. However, there is a paucity of research assessing nurse interns’ perception regarding their role as advocates for patient rights (Abbasinia et al., 2020).
This study aim was to assess the nurse interns’ perception regarding patients’ rights and advocacy.
The study was carried out in the four Ain Shams University Hospitals using a descriptive cross-sectional design. It included all 111 nurse interns having their training in the settings during the internship program 2020/2021. A validated and pilot-tested self-administered questionnaire with tools for patient bill of rights and patient advocacy was used in data collection. The fieldwork lasted from February to April 2021. All administrative and ethical requirements were fulfilled.
The main study results were as following.
Nurse interns’ age ranged between 21 and 27 years, median 23.0 years, with almost equal gender distribution.
Almost all nurse interns (97.3%) had heard about patient rights, 75.5% heard about the bill of patient rights, and 66.7% had related training.
The sources of information were mostly lectures (78.4%) and study (64.9%).
Nurse interns’ perception of patient rights widely varied between 62.2% for the right to make decisions in the treatment plan, to 91.0% for the right to sign informed consent before surgical procedures.
Overall, 66.7% of the nurse interns had high perception of patient rights.
The majority of nurse interns agreed upon patient advocacy rights items.
Overall, 80.2% of the nurse interns had high perception of patient advocacy rights.
Significantly more nurse interns with high perception were females, living in urban areas, and had large families
The percentages of nurse interns with high perception were highest in the University Hospital, and lowest in the Pediatrics Hospital.
Significantly more nurse interns with high perception were among those who had no training in patient rights.
The nurse interns with high perception of advocacy rights tended to have higher perception of patient rights.
In total, the percentage of nurse interns with high perception of advocacy rights was significantly higher among those having high perception of patient rights.
A significant moderate positive correlation was found between nurse interns’ scores of perceptions of patient rights and of advocacy (r=0.565).
A significant weak positive correlation was revealed between the advocacy score and family size (r=0.286).
In multivariate analysis:
The significant independent positive predictors of nurse interns’ score of patient right perception were the female gender and awareness of the patient right bill.
The female gender, family size, and previous training were significant independent positive predictors of nurse interns’ advocacy score, while age and night shift work were negative predictors.
In conclusion, the nurse interns’ perception of patient rights is variable and suboptimal, while their perception of patient advocacy is higher. Both their perception scores of perceptions of patient rights and advocacy are positively correlated and influenced by their personal and work factors.
The study recommends that the nursing internship program give more emphasis to the area of patient rights and advocacy and its implications on nurse interns’ practice through assertiveness training and practice on real-life situations. The hospital administration should foster staff awareness of patient rights through on-the-job training courses and workshops, relevant posters, and suitable work conditions. Periodic regular evaluation of nurse’s knowledge and perception of patient’s rights and advocacy is needed. Nursing schools’ curricula should include more in-depth knowledge and practical training in patient rights and patient advocacy. Further research is proposed to explore the barriers that prevent nurses from advocating patients, and to develop guidelines for better practice of patient rights and advocacy.