Knowledge of community people about the rights of terminal patients
International Journal of Development Research
Knowledge of community people about the rights of terminal patients
Received 17th March, 2018; Received in revised form 24th April, 2018; Accepted 3rd May, 2018; Published online 28th June, 2018
Copyright © 2018, Halyne Cassia Gomes et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Scientific and technological developments in health have improved treatment options and assistance, conveying increases in life expectancy. Despite this, literature is still scarce in research about the rights of terminal patients. This information allows the vindication of a dignified and respectful health care, besides contributing to the exercise of autonomy. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the knowledge and respect for the rights of terminal patients by community people. This was an exploratory, descriptive study with a quantitative approach. The sample consisted of 136 community people. The instrument was a questionnaire to identify the knowledge and respect for the rights of terminal patients. Rights were unknown by 78.7% of respondents. Participants who reported acknowledging the rights (21.3%) were asked to mention the rights they knew. Among the most cited were the right of free access to medicines (30%), access to health goods and services (23.3%), right to continuity of basic care (20%), and good quality, dignified and human treatment (16.7%). In conclusion, most individuals were unaware of the rights of terminal patients and had a low perception of respect tow ardsthem.
