Make them your friend : a phenomenological study of patients\u27 experience soliciting nursing care in the hospital setting

The purpose of this study was to explore hospitalized patients\u27 experience soliciting nursing care. To discover what patients were aware of when soliciting such care, without directing them to specific aspects pre-judged to be important, a phenomenological interview was used, following procedures outlined by Thomas and Pollio (2002). Eight participants ranging in age from 29 to 65 were interviewed and were included only if they had one or more experiences soliciting nursing care in the hospital, were open and willing to talk about their experience, and were at least 21 years of age. Nondirective, in-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for themes. Hermeneutic analysis of the interview texts resulted in the following three themes: make them your friend, be an easy patient, and try to get them to listen. Hospitalized patients solicit nursing care by strategically building relationships. These relationships were formed in order to get nurses to remember them, hoping the nurses would be more responsive to their needs if they stood out from the crowd. Patients used such strategies such as using nurses\u27 names, being likeable, making them laugh, taking an interest in them, and making them feel liked. Some patients also reported having a sincere desire for establishing a genuine relationship with their nurses. Patients avoided bothering or burdening nurses in their effort to be an easier patient and often reported making multiple attempts, often unsuccessfully, to get nurses to listen to them. Participants tried to get nurses to listen to them by asking for what they wanted and my asking questions. If these strategies did not result in getting nurses to listen, participants escalated their tactics

Social meanings and understandings in patient-nurse interaction in the community practice setting: a grounded theory study

Provisional: Background: The patient-nurse relationship is a traditional concern of healthcare research. However, patient-nurse interaction is under examined from a social perspective. Current research focuses mostly on specific contexts of care delivery and experience related to medical condition or illness, or to nurses' speciality. Consequentially, this paper is about the social meanings and understandings at play within situated patient-nurse interaction in the community practice setting in a transforming healthcare service. Methods: Grounded theory methodology was used and the research process was characterised by principles of theoretical sensitivity and constant comparative analysis. The field of study was four health centres in the community. The participants were patients and nurses representative of those attending or working in the health centres and meeting there by scheduled appointment. Data collection methods were observations, informal interviews and semi-structured interviews. Results: Key properties of 'Being a good patient, being a good nurse', 'Institutional experiences' and 'Expectations about healthcare' were associated with the construction of a category entitled 'Experience'. Those key properties captured that in an evolving healthcare environment individuals continually re-constructed their reality of being a patient or nurse as they endeavoured to perform appropriately; articulation of past and present healthcare experiences was important in that process. Modus operandi in role as patient was influenced by past experiences in healthcare and by those in non-healthcare institutions in terms of engagement and involvement (or not) in interaction. Patients' expectations about interaction in healthcare included some uncertainly as they strived to make sense of the changing roles and expertise of nurses and, differentiating between the roles and expertise of nurses and doctors. Conclusions: The importance of social meanings and understandings in patient-nurse interaction is not fully apparent to nurses, but important in the patient experience. Seeking understanding from a social perspective makes a contribution to enhancing knowledge about patient-nurse interaction with subsequent impact on practice, in particular the development of the patient-nurse relationship. The implications are that the meanings and understandings patients and nurses generate from experiences beyond and within their situated interaction are pivotal to the development of their relationship in the transforming community healthcare environment