Alleviating anxiety in nursing patients' significant others.

Abstract

This paper describes an investigation of factors that help to alleviate anxiety in nursing patients' significant others, based on the assumption that anxiety flows from the feeling of insecurity and accordingly that anxiety can be alleviated by strengthening the sense of security. The focus of the study is on factors that affect experiences of security in the significant others of critically ill patients. In addition, the paper addresses the questions of how the age and gender of the significant other, the duration of intensive care, and the patient's named nurse influence the assessments by significant others of the quality of the nursing care provided. Fourteen significant others of critically ill patients took part. The data were collected in focused interviews. For qualitative analysis the raw data were analysed into four main themes: nurse characteristics, interaction, professional competence, and confidence in nursing care and in the nursing staff. In the quantitative analysis the concern was with how these themes and their subcategories were emphasised by participants and on different variables. Frequencies were used. According to the results, significant others considered it important to have close contact with the nursing staff. Each patient's named nurse had an important role to play in improving the quality of nursing care. In general, respondents appeared to consider that factors which had to do with attitudes, which could be subjectively evaluated and which were not objectively discernible, were the most important determinants of safe, quality nursing care.