Effect of Comic-Based Education on Attitudes Toward Patient Rights

This prospective, parallel-group randomized controlled trial will evaluate the effect of comic-based patient rights education on attitudes toward the use of patient rights among adult inpatients. Participants will be assigned to the intervention or control group using block randomization with a 1:1 allocation ratio.

Participants in the intervention group will receive a single, approximately 15-minute, individual face-to-face educational session using a comic-based patient rights brochure. The brochure was developed based on the Turkish Patient Rights Regulation and presents patient rights through visual narratives and short patient-nurse dialogues. The educational content includes access to health services, obtaining information, choosing or changing healthcare institutions and healthcare professionals, privacy, consent, access to and correction of medical records, respect and dignity, visiting and accompanying persons, respect for religious beliefs, and rights related to applications, complaints, and legal action.

Participants in the control group will receive routine patient rights education provided in the hospital. This education will be delivered individually by clinical nurses using verbal explanations and the institution's standard written educational materials and will last approximately 15 minutes.

Attitudes toward the use of patient rights will be assessed in both groups before the educational intervention and immediately after completion of the education using the Patient Rights Utilization Attitude Scale. The primary analysis will compare post-intervention scores between the groups while controlling for baseline scores.

Inclusion criteria

• Aged 18 years or older.
• Hospitalized in an internal medicine or surgical clinic.
• Able to read and write in Turkish.
• No diagnosed psychiatric disorder.
• No visual, hearing, speech, or communication impairment that would prevent reading and understanding the educational material or completing the study questionnaires.
• Willing to participate in the study and provide written informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Requiring emergency medical intervention.
• Being hemodynamically unstable.
• Being in a critical clinical condition.
• Having a clinical condition that, in the judgment of the clinical team, makes participation in the educational intervention or data collection inappropriate.