Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T12:27:36.832Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Patient Rights: An Agenda for the ’80s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2021

Extract

Most nurses not only accept the notion that patients have rights, but also stand ready to help patients assert them. But how far will nurses go? Will they be willing allies as patients press for more recognition of their individuality and autonomy? At the National Conference on Patients' Rights held in Nashville in late September, 1980, I outlined for patient rights activists a five-point agenda for the ‘80s. Since then I have presented this agenda to nursing audiences in Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, California, and Michigan. The reception has varied, but many nurses are uncomfortable with the proposal. The purpose of this column is to present the agenda in written form to give Nursing Law & Ethics readers an opportunity to comment on it.

Type
Health Law Notes
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. See generally Annas, G.J., The Rights of Hospital Patients (Avon, New York, 1975); G.J. Annas, How to Make the Massachusetts Patients' Bill of Rights Work, Medicolegal News 8(l):6(February, 1980).Google Scholar
2. See, e.g., Altman, et al., Patients Who Read Their Hospital Charts, New England Journal of Medicine 302:169 (January 17, 1980).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3. Annas, G.J., The Care of Private Patients in Teaching Hospitals: Legal Implications, Bulletin of New York Academy of Medicine 55(4):403-11 (May, 1980).Google Scholar