THE RELATIONSHIP OF PATIENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF COMMUNICATION AND THEIR SATISFACTION WITH NURSING CARE.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 115
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Social.
Description: Interpersonal communication helps to define roles and establish relationships as well as convey messages. Verbal interaction between patients and nurses influences the manner in which patients view nurses and nursing care. The relationship between patient satisfaction with the care given by nursing personnel, and the measurement of time spent, and the type of verbal communication perceived by patients and nurses in one institution is the focus of this study.

The instrument utilized to measure patient satisfaction was devised by Nancy L. Risser and was originally designed for use in an out-patient clinic. It measures patient satisfaction with nurses' technical-professional, educational/relationship, and trusting-relationship skills. Pearson product-moment correlations and Chi-square tests were utilized in analyzing the data obtained. Patient satisfaction with nurses and nursing care was compared with their perceptions of total time spent in communication, the time spent in care-related and casual communication, and their sex and age. Relationships between patients' and nurses' perceptions of communication time were also compared. The total amount of time patients' perceived spent in communication with nurses and their satisfaction with nurses and nursing care revealed a significant relationship at the.05 level.

The small number of subjects and the utilization of one hospital unit leads to the obvious recommendation that the study be repeated with a larger number of subjects and in more than one unit or facility. Patients perceived approximately twenty-nine percent more time in communication than nurses. This raises questions concerning the value of communication for the patients and nurses. Also, whether patients are misidentifying ancillary personnel as nurses and attributing communication time to them.

Whether or not, variations in nursing education altered nurses' participation in communication with patients, could not be answered in this study. This is another question raised for further research.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: B, page: 1941.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1987.

School code: 0055.