Effectiveness of educational intervention on staff perception of knowledge and comfort levels toward educating patients on patient rights issues

Patient rights is an area of growing interest in health care. One of the primary reasons for the current emphasis is the implementation of the Patient Self-Determination Act of 1990. The purpose of this pre-experimental study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational program on changing staff perceptions of knowledge and comfort levels toward educating patients on patient rights issues. An educational intervention was performed, and staff perception of their knowledge and behaviors towards patient rights was evaluated prior to the intervention and subsequent to the intervention, utilizing a self-reporting survey. The findings of this study suggested that the educational intervention effected a statistically significant improvement in staff perception of personal knowledge, comfort level, and familiarity with and ability to implement patient rights policies. It also suggested that although staff perception improved significantly, there is still an opportunity for improvement.