Use of a Sound Recorder in Nurses' Home Visits

Abstract

N URSES WORK with people so closely and under such varied conditions that the area of interpersonal relations has a special significance for this group. Consideration of the circumstances which produce effective patient-nurse relationships has long been of concern to practitioners, administrators, and educators in the field of public health nursing. The most common methods for obtaining information about such contacts have been supervisory observations or stenographic and process recordings. Though these methods have been useful to varying degrees, each has certain drawbacks. Any method based on recall of events suffers from possible lack of accuracy and objectivity. While the stenographic transcript may overcome these objections, it fails to reveal the tone and pace of the patientnurse relationship. Reports on the use of sound recording equipment seemed to indicate that this method might overcome some of the objections to the procedures previously employed. For some time recording machines have been used in clinic situations to record interviews, and one investigator is using a sound recording device in the field to gather information for curriculum purposes. Further investigation of the use of sound recording equipment for gathering data on the content and conduct of nursing visits in the home was made during the spring of 1953 by the Public Health Service with the cooperation of the Alexandria (Va.) Health Department. Participating in the field trial in the use of this equipment were 6 public health nurses of the Alexandria Health Department, with 20 of the families they served. As a preliminary to the activity, the group of nurses met to discuss details of procedure. All of them were agreed that, in this trial, they did not want to be responsible for the operation of the recorder. They were sure that it would be impossible for them to conduct an adequate interview under such circumstances sinc6 they would be unable to concentrate on the visit content while, at the same time, they made sure that the recorder was operating satisfactorily. They also felt they would be more comfortable if the third person present during the patient-nurse contact was another nurse since they would then have a greater sense of freedom in talking with the patient. Furthermore, the nurses believed that the patients would find it easier to accept the presence of another public health nurse as, in many instances, it would not be the first time two nurses had been in the home at the same time. For these reasons a second nurse was made responsible for recordings in the field.