Comparison of Nursing Needs as Perceived by Admitted Patients and Nurses in a General Hospital

Purpose: This study was done to compare the perceived nursing needs as reported by admitted patients and nurses in a general hospital. Method: The participants were 194 patients and 183 nurses in a general hospital in Seoul. The instruments were constructed based on a prior study review and revised after a pilot study with 3 patients. The questionnaire for nursing needs included questions on physical, therapeutic, emotional, educational and socioeconomic domains. Data were collected between February 29 and March 26 for patients and between February 19 and 26, 2002 for nurses. The data were analyzed with frequencies, percentiles, means and t-test. Results: The results were as follow: 1. The total score for perceived nursing needs by nurses was higher than that reported by patients except for socioeconomic needs. 2. There were significant differences between patients and nurses only in the emotional domain (t=3.50, p=.001). 3. The highest score was for therapeutic needs and the next was for educational needs. 4. Relatively higher scored items were for comfort care, prevention of nosocomial infections, immediate treatment, monitoring health condition, kindness, and explanation of tests and treatments. Conclusion: Nurses generally understand patients' nursing needs but have to be more interested in patients' needs in order to prevent nosocomial infections, to provide care in a good relationship with the doctors and to encourage the patients.