Missed nursing care in patient education: A qualitative study of different levels of nurses' perspectives.

Abstract

To explore the different levels of nurses' perspectives in the delivery of patient education in postoperative care. Patient education is a frequently reported missed nursing care and can lead to postoperative complications and hospital readmissions. Descriptive exploratory qualitative study involving eight focus groups with 35 nurses was conducted in an acute hospital. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were thematically analysed. The analysis yielded three themes: 'Role ambiguity' between the levels of nurses concerning their roles in patient education; 'Not a priority nursing care' for patient education due to competing work demands and the missing workplace culture to teach; and 'Informal teaching' carried out conversationally during nursing care activities. This study augments the need to develop strategies, including informal teaching, to strengthen the delivery of patient education to avert missed nursing care. Nurse managers and educators are instrumental in establishing role clarity between ward nurses and specialty care nurses for patient education, recognizing patient education as the next nurse-sensitive indicator in reflecting quality of care, fostering positive workplace cultures to teach and providing ward nurses with trainings on communication strategies to provide effective informal teaching at bedside.