Patient's companions as a vulnerable group in Turkish hospitals: A descriptive study

In Turkish hospitals, in addition to health care professionals, there are people who are also a significant part of the health care services; even though they are not professionals. In Turkey, these people are known as refakatçi (a patient's companion).

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the concept of the patient's companion from their own perspective and to evaluate the concept of the patient's companion in terms of biomedical ethics.

This was a descriptive study. Personal interviews were conducted via a structured questionnaire containing open-ended questions with the patients' companions. Thematic text analysis method was used to analyze the open-ended questions. The study was conducted at a University Research and Training Hospital in the Aegean Region of Turkey.

A total of 118 patient companions participated in the study. These patient companions stayed with the patients because of their concerns about trusting the health care professionals in caring for the patients. During their stay, the companions encountered several problems, including staying in ward-type rooms and resting in a single armchair, as well as staying for a mean time span of 4 days, primarily for 24 consecutive hours in each day. Despite these conditions, most of the companions surprisingly declared their satisfaction with their stays.

Patients' companions should be defined as bioethical subjects; more specifically, they should be defined as vulnerable subjects and should not be taken advantage of. The description of patient companions as a vulnerable group allows for the ethical evaluation of similar systems, such as those in Israel, Greece, Korea, and Iran, and could allow for the development of a common solution for these systems. Moreover, such a definition provides an important basis for social, ethical, or legal studies on the health care systems in all of these countries.