CARING FROM THE PATIENT'S PERSPECTIVE IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT.
Contributors: Ohio State University.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 114
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Caring is the central phenomenon and the foundation of nursing practice. Advances in technology, societal changes, and the critical nature of the illnesses experienced by patients seen in the emergency department present a need to describe caring that is provided by emergency department nurses.

The research questions were: (1) What are the caring activities by nurses from the patient's perspective in the emergency department?; (2) What are the caring behaviors by nurses from the patient's perspective in the emergency department?; (3) What are the experiences of caring from the patient's perspective in the emergency department?; and (4) Does the factor analysis support the theoretical constructs?.

A methodological design was used to answer the research questions. Using a theoretical framework that identified that caring is composed of three constructs: caring activities, caring behaviors, and caring experiences, the investigator developed a thirty-item instrument composed of statements that reflected each of these constructs based upon previous caring research and the investigator's experience as an emergency nurse. The validity of the instrument was established by administering it to ten subjects who had been cared for in the emergency department. The Cronbach's alpha for the instrument was.9. Focused interview data were collected from 5 subjects to obtain support for the instrument.

Analysis of the data for Research Questions One, Two and Three revealed that subjects agreed with the items on the instrument considered caring activities, behaviors, and experiences. The means ranged from 2.91 to 3.54. The analysis of the data for Research Question Four revealed that the factor analysis did not support the theoretical constructs.

The conclusions from this study were: (1) The instrument did identify caring from the patient's perspective in the emergency department; (2) The patient's perception of caring by the emergency nurse is contextual and relational. Caring in the emergency department is the recognition of the patient having a need for nursing care, the nurse meeting that need, and the nurse recognizing the patient as fellow human being. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-02, Section: B, page: 0751.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, 1990.

School code: 0168.