Patient perceptions of quality of nursing care as evidenced by nurse caring behavior

Lack of quality of care threatens patient safety and results in increased costs of health care. It is critical for nursing to examine quality of care at the nurse-patient interaction level and gain an understanding of patients' perceptions of both the interpersonal and technical components of nursing care for a comprehensive representation of the consumer perspective. The purposes of this study were to use a patient perspective to identify those nursing behaviors having the highest correlation to quality of nursing care, to investigate differences in ratings of quality of nursing care between patients without a nursing background and patients with a nursing background (including basic technical skill), and examine for differences in ratings of quality of nursing care based on age, educational level, gender, and number of hospitalizations.;A retrospective, descriptive study design was used with a sample of two groups of patients recently discharged from the hospital, patients with and patients without a nursing background. Four Midwest hospitals participated. Two instruments were employed; a Quality of Nursing Care Visual Analog Scale and Wolf's Caring Behaviors Inventory. Pearson's correlation coefficients, independent t-tests, and ANOVA were used for data analysis.;One hundred, fifty subjects completed surveys; 75 patients with a nursing background and 80 patients without a nursing background. Findings demonstrated strong correlations between overall QNCVAS scores and all subscales ratings of the CBI and total CBI scores. No significant differences of ratings of either nurse caring behaviors or quality of nursing care between the two subgroups were identified. No significant differences were found in any of the demographics. Implications for future research include the use of a visual analog scale for measuring quality of nursing care and the confirmation of specific nurse behaviors valued by patients as promoting highest quality care for educational purposes.