Perception of nursing behaviour by surgery nurses and patients in a chosen region of the Czech Republic

Abstract

Caring is an interpersonal process that is characterized by professional nursing, interpersonal sensitivity and a very close relationship between the nurse (care provider) and the patient (care receiver).The aim of this quantitative descriptive study was to identify perceptions of caring behaviour by surgery nurses and their patients, and to discover relationships between their perceptions.The set research consisted of 133 nurses (mean age 37.5 years) working in surgery departments of all hospitals in the Vysočina Region, and 543 patients (mean age 52.1 years) looked after by the nurses. The data were collected with the help of the Caring Behaviour Inventory (CBI-24) in the period of April–July 2012. Software SPSS v. 21 was used for statistical analysis (Student's t-test, ANOVA, significance α=0.05).The most important thing the nurses and patients considered was about the activities that fell under the topic, Knowledge and Skills. Among those activities, some were evaluated with the lowest scores by nurses, and those belonged to the time spent with patients, helping them with their development and visiting their room without permission. Patients saw deficiencies in nursing care mostly regarding to the time spent with them, in helping them with their development and visiting their rooms willingly without being asked.Nurses evaluated their caring behaviour with an exceptionally higher score than that of their patients. Respondents who stayed in hospital for the first time assessed caring behaviour better. The patients’ evaluation was influenced by their age and education. The evaluation of the caring behaviour of nurses is quite a new phenomenon in the Czech Republic and can be a significant indicator of the evaluation of quality of nursing in hospitals.