Developing "Code of Ethics for Medical Professionals, Medical Council of Islamic Republic of Iran"

Background: The medical profession has always been an inspiration for human societies throughout its diverse history. This position and historical authority in the field of ethics has had a different and higher status, in such a way that many of the norms of general ethics and professional ethics, especially principles, such as trust, confidentiality and respect for human dignity, have been developed by medical professionals. Developing guidelines of general and professional ethics is one of the inherent duties of the Medical Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRIMC) as a professional organization. In this regard, the Supreme Council of IRIMC has approved the "Code of Ethics for Medical Professionals"and, in accordance with its legal authority, has annexed it to the disciplinary regulations of IRIMC. Methods: A draft document, the result of extensive literature review, was discussed in 27 expert panel meetings and after receiving and endorsing the stakeholders' point of view, was approved by the IRIMC Supreme Council. Results: The first edition of "Code of Ethics for Medical Professionals, Medical Council of Islamic Republic of Iran"was developed on July 6, 2017 by the Supreme Council of IRIMC. The guideline was set to take effect one year after its enactment. The first edition was revised and completed and final edition was adopted on August 9, 2018 by IRIMC in 13 chapters and 140 articles (original full text is available in the Supplementary file 1). Conclusion: According to the approved decision by the Supreme Council of IRIMC on May 10, 2018, the final edition takes effect as of October 7, 2018. © 2020 The Author(s)

Necessity of Observing Patient’s Rights: A Survey on the Attitudes of Patients, Nurses and Physicians

Studying the situation of observance of patients' rights and interaction of those individuals who provide and/or receive health services are regarded as the most significant and salient parameters of qualitative evaluation of health services.The main aim of this study is to compare the attitudes of patients as recipients of healthcare services with those of physicians and nurses as representatives of healthcare providers regarding the necessity of observance of various aspects of patients' rights in three hospitals selected as representing the three models of providing medical service (teaching, private and public).This was a cross-sectional descriptive analytical study and the data were gathered using a questionnaire. Researchers helped the patients to fill in the questionnaire through interviewing and the physicians and nurses filled in their own questionnaires.The field consisted of three hospitals (a teaching general hospital, a private hospital and a public general one) all located in Tehran. The questionnaires included a set of general questions regarding demographic information and 21 questions about the necessity of observance of patients' rights. They were filled in by the interviewer for 143 patients and, after being sent to other groups, 143 nurses (response rate = 61.3%) and 82 physicians (response rate = 27.5%) filled them in. The criterion for necessity of each right was measured according to the Likert Scale [from 0 (not necessary) to 10 (absolutely necessary]. The data were analyzed using SPSS 11.5 software. Given the abnormal distribution of the data, non-parametrical tests were used.The results of this study showed that all of the study groups agreed wih the necessity of almost all aspects of patients' rights and the highest level of disagreement between groups was related to patients' right of access to information and right of choosing provision provider and deciding on treatment plan. However, these disagreements were not significant altogether.According to the results, it seems that healthcare providers, especially physicians, should be better familiarized with patients' right of access to information and right of choosing and deciding. Based on the disagreement between the attitudes of the patients and physicians in this study, it seems that the patients had a higher level of expectations concerning their rights compared to physicians

Realization of Patient Right Dimensions from the Viewpoint of Nurses, Doctors and Patients Hospitalized in Selected Departments of Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Background and Objective: Respecting the patient's rights is one of the most important components of providing humanistic care and a priority in the field of medical ethics in Iran. Therefore, the charter of patients' rights in Iran was announced in 2009 as a practice guide in this field. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the realization of patient rights from the viewpoint of doctors, nurses and patients hospitalized in selected departments of Shariati Hospital affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Tehran in 2016-2017 on 487 participants who were selected by convenience sampling method. The data collection tool was the questionnaire of patients' rights awareness. The scores obtained were based on the individual's point of view regarding the observance of the right in question and ranged from 1 (not observed at all) to 5 (completely observed). Findings: Based on the results of this study, doctors and nurses have reported less realization of patients' rights compared to patients. Patients, nurses and doctors, respectively, agree with the greater realization of patient rights in the areas of observance of justice (4.54±0.96), being polite to the patient (4.17±0.90), and quality of service in a scientific sense (3.37±0.85). In addition, patients reported less realization of patients' right in the areas of responsibility and accountability (3.03±1.59) (p=0.000), and nurses and doctors reported less realization of patients' rights in the areas of attention to the patient's well-being and comfort (3.45±0.99) and (2.48±0.84) (p=0.000). Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that, in general, the attitude of the patients indicated that the patient's rights were better fulfilled compared to the doctors and nurses. of course, the views of service receivers and service providers were different regarding the degree of compliance with different dimensions of patient rights in the hospital, and it is necessary to prioritize the views of patients as service receivers and main beneficiaries in the interventions, and the service providers should be informed about it and the solutions to solve the existing shortcomings should be identified and appropriate action should be taken to solve them