Opinions of a group of Turkish patients regarding patients’ rights

The aim of this descriptive study is to determine a group of patients' awareness of patient rights, significance of patients’ rights for them and how they utilize these rights. The study was carried out with 100 of the patients who were admitted to the blood-taking unit of the outpatient services department of Mersin University Health Research and Application Center between September 1, - October 15, 2009, and agreed to participate in the study. The participants were asked to state whether they were knowledgeable about each of these rights, and whether they had ever benefited from them. Of the participants, 53% were knowledgeable about the 14 patients’ rights listed in the data collection form and 28% benefited from these rights.Although the study participants generally attached importance to patients' rights, they neither were knowledgeable about these rights nor benefited from them sufficiently