Quality of nursing diagnosis and patient satisfaction. A study of the correlation

Abstract

The research question was whether there exists a relationship between quality of nursing diagnoses in nursing documentations and patient's satisfaction with nursing diagnoses. The hypotheses stated that a positive relationship between nursing diagnosis and patient satisfaction exists; high quality of nursing diagnoses in the nursing documentation goes along with high patient satisfaction with nursing diagnoses. The sample consisted of 57 patients, their nursing documentations and nurses of three dermatological units of a university hospital in Switzerland. Nursing diagnosis was analysed from two points of view: the professional nursing focus and patients' focus. For this purpose, two measurement instruments have been developed. Three subconcepts of quality of nursing diagnoses and patient satisfaction were derived: interaction/personal dimension, patient participation and knowledge of nurses. Content validity of both instruments was established and the reliability coefficents of both instruments were rather high (.91 and .95). To test assessment objectivity, twelve raters analysed three nursing documentations. The tree Kappas were significant at a 5% level. The hypothesis was analysed by a correlational design. The main findings showed a significant relationship between quality of nursing diagnoses in documentations and patient satisfaction (tau = .18, p < or = .03). The evaluation of nursing diagnoses indicated effective communication between nurses and patients and that nurses assessed patients' situations appropriately. Patients satisfaction with nursing diagnoses was rather high. One of three subscales in both instruments yielded a significant correlation. The statistically significant, but low relationship suggests the need for further study.