Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Patient Advocacy is one of the vital duties of nurses. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between spiritual intelligence and patient advocacy in educational hospitals in Khorramabad during 2017. This was a correlational descriptive-analytic study that was performed on 250 nurses working in educational hospitals in Khorramabad in 2017. The criteria for entering this study included a minimum degree of nursing and one year of clinical work experience. Participants in this study were selected by random sampling method. Data collection tools consisted of Hank’s advocacy Questionnaire and King's spiritual intelligence. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential (correlation coefficients and regression coefficients) using SPSS v.21 software. Sixty seven percent (164 persons) were female and 37.5% (79 persons) were male. Sixty three percent of participants had a work experience of less than 5 years. The findings of this study showed the mean score of spiritual intelligence of nurses was 80.88 ± 11.19. The average score for patient advocacy was 155.73 ± 21.41. Pearson correlation coefficient showed that there was a significant correlation between spiritual intelligence score and Advocacy and its components (p = 0.624). The mean score of spiritual intelligence in nurses was high in the King questionnaire. The average score for patient advocacy was Hanks' questionnaire in the medium range. The present study showed that there was a significant positive correlation between spiritual intelligence and patient advocacy. As spiritual intelligence is acquired, spiritual intelligence can be promoted through classes and workshops, thereby increasing the patient advocacy and increasing the safety of patients.
 

Obtaining informed consent is for protection of patients' rights. The aim of informed consent is not decreasing physicians' responsibility.Informed consent assists the patient in making a decision concerning their care, improve their satisfaction, and decrease legal litigations. This study examined patients' attitude toward the quality of informed consent and its challenges in educational -clinical settings. Current qualitative research was simple content analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 hospitalized patients who were selected by purposeful sampling method considering type and severity of the disease, gender, age, and satisfaction or dissatisfaction from the management. The data was analyzed using MAXQDA 2007 software. Primary codes and categories were extracted then the findings were presented based on the main. Five themes were extracted from the data: "meaning, importance and status of consent in medicine", "consequences of obtaining consent", "the role of patient and therapist in the process of informed consent", "challenges of making informed consents" and "facilitators in the process of informed consent"; all could define and compile the main theme “doctor, patient, and procedural elements, three pillars of informed consent”. Inadequate explanation to the patient, signing the form prior to read it, lack of trust to the practitioner, disregarding patients' psychologic needs and stress and obtaining the consent by someone other than the physician was among the main reported challenges of informed consent. Correction and standardization of obtaining informed consent's culture requires knowledge about current situation followed by training, enforcement, supervision, encouragement, and punishment.  Collaboration of health care team needs comprehension of necessity and importance of this issue and its consequences.