Nurses’ actuation over the patients’ rights: decision making, identity and personal autonomy

Abstract

Study that aimed to verify the nurses´ perception about their actuation over the patients´ rights, considering thefoundations: decision making, patient´s identification and personal autonomy. Quantitative, descriptive-observational and cross-sectional study, carried out at the University Hospital of Brasília-DF. Data were collected from the application of a specific tool for the proposed objective already validated, to 128 nurses. Descriptive statistical analysis and Wilcoxon´s non-parametric test were carried out. It was noticed that the nurses perceived themselves acting in defense of the patients ´rights in all foundations analyzed being the personal autonomy the most exercised and the favoring information for decision making as the least exercised. The study enabled verifying which foundations of the patients´ rights are perceived as the most respected, in addition to producing questionings about the theoretical knowledge that the nurses possess on the concepts and the application of these foundations.