Qualitative Inquiry into the Patients' Expectations regarding Nurses and Nursing Care

Abstract

Background and Objectives. Awareness about the patients’ needs and expectations is quite important in improving the quality of the services they are provided with. Since meeting the needs and expectations of the patients is one of the basic issues in patient care, the present study aimed to investigate the patients’ expectations from nurses and nursing care. Methods. In this qualitative study, 20 hospitalized patients were interviewed. The data were gathered through deep, semistructured interviews. Then, all the recorded interviews were transcribed, reviewed for several times, and analyzed using qualitative content analysis approach. Results. By analyzing of data, three main categories were extracted. The main categories of the patients’ expectations from nurses and nursing care were comprehensive care, ethical performance, and having proper individual characteristics. Discussion and Conclusion. The study results revealed that the patients expected comprehensive care from the nurses. In addition, the nurses were required to apply the ethical principles in what they do as their duties. The findings of the study can be helpful in improving the patient care.