Every patient has the right to be recognized and respected as a citizen. This means making decisions related to his care and treatment. The aim of this article is to know how nursing is respecting hospitalized patients' rights through both SUS and private health care in a university Hospital. Semi-structured interviews were applied to hospitalized patients and nurses from a Surgical Clinic Unit (SCU) and a Private Health Care Unit (CU), in addition to the systematic observations made of the nursing care given to the patients. The results demonstrate the necessity of nurses to use their work time to orientate patients that are hospitalized by SUS and to make an effort to guarantee the respect of hospitalized patients' rights, who must be enlightened and give their free consent before receiving any procedure.
Ethics nursing; Patient rights; Nursing care