ursing Research and Practice
Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 534060, 8 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/534060
Research Article
Patients' Perceptions of Nurses' Behaviour That Influence Patient Participation in Nursing Care: A Critical Incident Study
Inga E. Larsson,1 Monika J. M. Sahlsten,2 Kerstin Segesten,3 and Kaety A. E. Plos4
1Department of Nursing, Health and Culture, University West, 461 86 Trollhättan, Sweden
2School of Life Sciences, University of Skövde, Högskolevägen 1, 541 28 Skövde, Sweden
3Institute of Health and Care Sciences, University College of Borås, Allégatan 1, 501 90 Borås, Sweden
4Institute of Health and Care Sciences, The Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University, Box 457, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
Received 8 December 2010; Revised 6 February 2011; Accepted 20 February 2011
Academic Editor: Fannie G. Gaston-Johansson
Copyright © 2011 Inga E. Larsson et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Patient participation is an important basis for nursing care and medical treatment and is a legal right in many Western countries. Studies have established that patients consider participation to be both obvious and important, but there are also findings showing the opposite and patients often prefer a passive recipient role. Knowledge of what may influence patients' participation is thus of great importance. The aim was to identify incidents and nurses' behaviours that influence patients' participation in nursing care based on patients' experiences from inpatient somatic care. The Critical Incident Technique (CIT) was employed. Interviews were performed with patients (), recruited from somatic inpatient care at an internal medical clinic in West Sweden. This study provided a picture of incidents, nurses' behaviours that stimulate or inhibit patients' participation, and patient reactions on nurses' behaviours. Incidents took place during medical ward round, nursing ward round, information session, nursing documentation, drug administration, and meal.
1. Introduction
Patients’ active participation in their own care is known to increase motivation and adherence to prescriptions, give better treatment results, create greater satisfaction with received care [1], and reduce stress and anxiety [2]. Patient participation is an important basis for nursing care and medical treatment and it is also a legal right in many Western countries. Studies have established that patients consider participation to be both obvious and important [3, 4], but there are also findings showing the opposite [5] and patients may prefer a passive recipient role [6, 7]. Knowledge of what may influence patients’ participation is thus of great importance when it comes to meeting their expectations and demands.
Previous research focusing on patient participation from a patient perspective has been performed primarily in medicine and is carried out by physicians [8, 9]. Research on patient participation in nursing care has defined participation in performing clinical or daily living skills [10]. Patient participation has been explored in different situations, for example, discharge planning [11–14] and bedside reporting [15] in emergency care [16] and has primarily focused on decision-making in treatment/care (e.g., [17–20]).
Although nursing theories emphasise participation (e.g., [21]) and studies have explored patient participation in different contexts and situations, there have not been congruence regarding definition, elements, and processes [8, 22, 23]. The lack of clarity is amplified by the use of several terms: patient/client/consumer/user involvement, collaboration, partnership, and influence [8, 17]. However, when the focus is on the patient perspective, the concept of patient participation is commonly used.
Empirical studies have identified conditions for patient participation. Sainio et al. [17] found that the patient needs to have the intellectual ability to understand and choose between alternatives and make decisions about their own nursing care and the nurse must provide adequate and correct information. Tutton [24] emphasized the significance of developing a relationship between nurse and patient and the importance of understanding the patient as well as gaining and retaining an emotional connection. According to Sahlsten et al. [25], a nurse needs to use strategies including building close co-operation with the patient, getting to know the person, and reinforcing self-care capacity.
Factors restricting participation were identified by Wellard et al. [20]: limited communication between nurses and patients, task-oriented nursing labour, and environmental constraints limiting patients’ privacy. Eldh et al. [26] found nonparticipation; when patients lack an equal relationship, respect, and information. According to Efraimsson et al. [12], nonparticipation, occurs when professionals are not attuned to the concerns of the patient and individual needs and when they literally silence or disregard the patient’s wishes. Sahlsten et al. [27] found that a nurse can lack theoretical or practical knowledge required as well as an insight that patient participation requires deliberate and planned interaction between nurse and patient together with adjusted actions within every encounter. Larsson et al. [28] recently presented barriers for participation from a patient perspective: facing own inability, meeting lack of empathy, meeting a paternalistic attitude, and sensing structural barriers.
While several studies have addressed patient participation, few accounts exist based on patients’ descriptions of decisive incidents that influenced their participation in nursing care. Accordingly, there is a need to explore situations related to critical incidents that influence patient participation. The aim of this study was to identify incidents and nurses’ behaviours that influence patients’ participation in nursing care based on patients’ experiences from inpatient somatic care.
2. Method
This study is part of a larger project regarding patient participation in nursing care from the perspective of both patient and nurse. A qualitative approach, using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), was employed. The CIT is a systematic, inductive, and flexible method where specific descriptions of human behaviour in defined situations are collected [29]. The method is useful in solving practical problems. The central concept in CIT is a critical incident which is a maior event of great importance to the person involved. The incidents are mostly collected in semistructured face-to-face interviews [30], the most satisfactory data collection method in CIT for insuring that all the necessary details are supplied [31]. The informants are asked to provide descriptions of specific incidents, positive and/or negative, which they perceive as significant. Here, these descriptions were collected within the framework of the interview method in order to generate an adequate depth of response. The number of incidents required depends on the complexity of the problem under investigation. It is usually sufficient to collect a total of 100 incidents for a qualitative analysis [29].
2.1. Informants
The participants () in this study were recruited from somatic inpatient care. The selection was purposeful. The intention was to have a range of informants able to contribute their experience as patients. The informants were ambulatory patients from three internal medical wards with neither an explicit care philosophy emphasising patient participation, nor a focus on nurse-patient continuity. The wards were focused on (i) stroke, (ii) disorder of kidney and heart, and (iii) lung. All informants were able to communicate in Swedish and had no physical or cognitive deficits hampering the ability to describe their experiences as patients. The time spent on the ward varied from 4 to 19 days. Eight men and nine women participated. Their ages ranged 28–91 years.
2.2. Data Collection
Data were collected by means of semistructured interviews. Nursing care was explained as the interplay with Registered Nurses. The interviewer assisted the patients to describe the specific incidents that have influenced their participation in nursing care. The interview guide consisted of the following questions: describe a positive significant incident which was successful for your participation in your own nursing care, and describe a negative significant incident where you felt nonparticipation. After the patient had identified an event, the following questions, earlier used by Kemppainen [31], were asked: what were the circumstances leading to that event?, exactly what did the nurse do?, how did you respond to the nurse?, and how did the nurse’s actions affect your behaviour?. The same wording in the questions was kept throughout all interviews, as recommended by Flanagan [29].
The informants were recruited from an internal medical clinic in a central hospital in West Sweden. Written permission was obtained from the head of the clinic. The head nurse of each ward was contacted by telephone and given information. All the nurses on the selected wards were sent written information regarding aim and procedure. The nurses were asked to approach patients the day before an interview was scheduled and ask whether they were interested in participating in the study or not. Verbal and written information was given to those willing to participate. On the morning of a planned interview, written informed consent was obtained. The interviews were held in the patient’s own room or adjacent to the wards in a place where there would be no interruption in order to provide a relaxed environment. Each interview was conducted in an open, friendly atmosphere by the main nurse researcher and
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