PATIENTS', FAMILY MEMBERS', AND REGISTERED NURSES' PERCEPTIONS OF NURSING STAFF HUMANISTIC BEHAVIORS.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 143
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Health Care Management.
Description: The purpose of this survey was to examine the congruency of patients', family members', and registered nurses' perceptions of the frequency and importance of nursing staff humanistic behaviors, The concept of hospitality served as the foundation for the study in terms of addressing guest relations in the hospital setting. Fenton's Scale of Humanistic Behaviors was revised to measure these perceptions.

The sample consisted of 154 patients, 154 family members, and 154 registered nurses from medical-surgical units in four acute care hospitals within the surrounding area of New York City.

The findings indicated that the registered nurses' ratings for the frequency and the importance of nursing staff humanistic behaviors were significantly higher than for patients and family members. The study findings also indicated that the patient, family member, and registered nurse demographic characteristics essentially bore no relationship to the perceived frequency and importance of nursing staff humanistic behaviors. A few exceptions to this finding included time-related characteristics associated with age, length of stay, and tenure of the nurse.

In the registered nurse group, the findings also showed that though the nurses rated nursing staff humanistic behaviors as important, the scores for the frequency ratings by the nurses were somewhat lower.

The results from this study suggest that the challenge confronting practicing nurses and nursing administrators is to consider how to increase the ratings from the "frequent" level to an "almost always" level. In this consideration, is the challenge to acknowledge the therapeutic domain of hospitality in terms of professional nursing along with the usual public version of hospitality.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-07, Section: B, page: 2648.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1994.

School code: 0055.