PREDICTORS OF NURSING SENSITIVE PATIENT OUTCOMES IN LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES IN TAIWAN, ROC (CHINA, NURSING HOMES).
Contributors: University of Michigan.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 227
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Social.
Description: The purpose of this study was to predict patient outcomes of nursing care in selected nursing homes in Taiwan. More specifically, this study sought to determine the predictors of patients' biopsychosocial functioning and the relationships among the three dimensions.

A purposive sample was drawn from eight registered nursing homes in Taiwan which were selected to represent homes in three main geographic areas and homes of different types. The sample for the study consisted of patients who had been living in these homes for at least two weeks and were mentally healthy. Data for the study were collected from 224 nursing homes patients and eight nursing home executives. Patient information was collected through a self- or interviewer-administered questionnaire.

Hierarchical multiple regressions were employed and the results suggest that individual factors as well as satisfaction with care significantly predicted patients' biopsychosocial functioning. Nursing practice patterns by themselves did not contribute to patients' biopsychosocial functioning, but they can indirectly affect it via satisfaction with care. The subjects' social and psychological functioning, and their social and physical functioning were positively and significantly related, yet there was no significant relationship between physical and psychological functioning. A positive change occurred in subjects' health conditions during the stay in these study settings regardless of the nursing practice patterns.

The documentation of changes in health conditions among the study sample provide general recognition for nursing practice. The impact of nursing practice on patient outcomes is an essential aspect of the nursing profession. Further investigations should be done to search for essential elements of nursing practice patterns for specific work, particular setting and circumstance as well as the unique individual patients. Satisfaction with care was found to be the best predictor of patients' biopsychosocial functioning in this study, which also can be considered as an outcome indicator of the quality of nursing practice. Information about patients' biopsychosocial functioning, satisfaction with care, and those factors which contribute to patient outcomes as well as nursing practice are crucial aspects in the stages of establishing the criteria for setting up nursing care institutions in Taiwan.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: B, page: 1940.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 1995.

School code: 0127.