Nursing and Medicine

Jakobsson, L. & Holmberg, L. (2011). "Individual personal relations: effects on service quality", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 24 Iss: 6, pp.430 - 440

Background

Literature Review

Methodology

Data Analysis

Conclusion

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the patients attitudes to nurses and investigate the hampering factors that occur in the actual nursing situation and what patient features might affect the cooperative climates.

Patient-nurse relations include helping patients make sense of new life situations induced by illness. Sense making requires active cooperation through dialogue and small talk between those involved. Apparently, it takes nurse and patient chatter and not just nurses telling patients for sense-making activity to occur (Stacey, 2001). Therefore, nurses and patients need to cooperate. As patients generally are vulnerable, the nursing situation needs to be based on patient trust and confidence.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 male in patients suffering from prostate cancer. The interviews were personal narration based on open-ended questions. The theoretical basis is found in sense-making, trust and competence.

Existential issues related to nursing care were interpreted by nurses as a need for (technical) information. However, respondents indicated a need for professional support regarding their whole life. The social climate seems not to be optimal for existential talk owing to hospital routines. Patients' personal traits also affect the propensity to cooperation, and three types were distinguished: cooperating patients; passive patients; and denying patients. Nurses' competence may be regarded as hierarchical levels from optimizing single items, over system optimization and to optimization from the patient perspective. The study indicates that not even first-level requirements are met.

Only patients' views were studied. Nurses' perceptions would add additional insights. Lack of personal relations and cooperation between patient and nurse may decrease service quality. Patient attitudes seem to be a major obstacle. For some patients, passively receiving technical information may be an excuse for not wanting to participate in mutual sense-making. The supposed need for technical information may also be an excuse for nurses to avoid more sensitive issues.

Task 1

Background

Cancer includes a large group of tumor diseases caused by cell gene damage. Patients generally experience a crisis when they are informed about severe diseases. The nurses' main task is to help patients overcome this crisis and to recreate patients' original quality of life (Jacobsson et al., 2005). To do so, it is necessary for nurses to fully understand an individual patient's view on life quality in relation to the disease and to provide faith and belief (Tanaka et al., 1999). A prerequisite for effective treatment is that patients accept the situation and to that end to establish some control over the disease (Jacobsson et al., 2005). So, nurses are supposed to help patients control their perceptions by translating the medical agenda into something that makes sense to them. This process calls for close cooperation between nurses and patients. To be successful, it must be based on trust and confidence. It is a mutually dependent situation. Cooperation is needed for mutual sense-making.

Observing patients with cancer shows that even with ...