Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Turksih Journal of Applied Social Work, cilt.8, sa.2, ss.169-187, 2025 (Hakemli Dergi)
Social workers conduct their practices from a human rights and social justice perspective. The Patient Rights Unit is a department in which social workers are needed and where activities are carried out within the scope of regulations. The social work perspective is important for meeting patients’ needs and addressing potential violations of their rights. There fore, this study was conducted to evaluate the observations and perspectives of social workers regarding practices in the Patient Rights Unit. The study assessed the patient rights practices of medical social workers and the effectiveness of these practices within the hospital. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with medical social workers. Using the snowball sampling method, 10 participants were reached. Based on the interviews, five main themes emerged: patient rights prac tices, social work practices, awareness-raising activities for patients, the functionality of social workers within the unit, and hospital administration. The study concluded that patient rights practices are carried out effectively, that the patient rights regulation is implemented, but that sometimes the regulation is violated by hospital staff or patients, in which case awareness-raising activities for patients are conducted. It was observed that social workers do not play a decisive role in Patient Rights Units; therefore, professionals with strong communication skills may be employed in these units, where as social workers are more prominent in functions related to promoting social change and empowering disadvantaged groups. Diverging from the prevailing assumptions in the current literature, the findings of this study suggest that the roles and the perceived necessity of social workers within patient rights units should be re-evaluated through the lens of institutional priorities and practical applications; this shift in focus constitutes the study’s original contribution to the field.