To know about the knowledge and insight of dentistry students of Shiraz, and evaluate them in practice of ethics while treating patients
Methods:
This is a descriptive and analytical study. The population under study were 111 of students and 100 of patients in various departments of the faculty. The students and patients were asked to fill forms designed in accordance to the bill of patient rights in Iran, and American Dental Association ethic codes for dentistry . The results were studied with the statistical software SPSS afterwards.
Results:
The results of the study show that 71% of the dentistry students of Shiraz are aware of patient rights. In second part of the study it is found that patient rights are respected almost 75% on a quantitative basis.
58.4% of the students stated that factors such as gender, nationality, etc have no effect on how they treat the patients. 61.3% stated that they fully explain the treatment procedures to their patients.
56.6% of the patients stated that the doctors explain the advantages and disadvantages of possible treatment methods and give them the right to choose their preferred method. Among the ethical principles of patient rights, the principles of “the right to choose the treatment method” and explaining the treatment procedure and “patient education and information” are the most important which could be resulted from the relationship between the two.
Conclusions:
The average respect towards patients rights as discussed in the second part of the study indicates a descent level of awareness about patient rights and incorporation of them in practical and clinical work among the students. However, less acceptable awareness of the students about certain rights could be an indication of the lack of a comprehensive bill of rights in our country.