Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the systematic use of the nursing process on the quality of nursing care. Quality nursing care was defined as being achieved when the patient's nursing care needs are identified and plans made to assist the patient with these needs.

It was hypothesized that the quality of nursing care would be improved by the participation of the team leaders in a series of classes on the nursing process. This improvement in quality nursing care would be evidenced by a higher correlation between the patient's needs perceived by the nurse and those perceived by the patient himself, a higher correlation between nursing assessment data and planned nursing interventions, and a change in duration of hospital stay.

The quality of nursing care was measured before and after a series of in-service classes on the nursing process.

In order to measure the perception of the patient's needs by both the patient and his team leader, a Q-sort containing 60 statements of nursing care needs was developed. This Q-sort was administered to each patient and his team leader.

The data was collected from 29 medical and surgical patients randomly selected in a small proprietary hospital in southern California. Different patient groups were used, while nurses were the same for pre and post samples.

The findings did not support the hypotheses of this study. However, some areas showing clinical significance were identified. There appeared to be lower correlation values when registered nursing care hours per patient were significantly decreased. With this decrease in registered nursing care hours, nurses seemed to increase their focus on personal hygiene needs. Nurses identified physical needs moderately well. This area was not influenced by available registered nursing care hours. In the pre sample nurses and patients ranked emotional and physical needs significantly different. Nurses ranked emotional needs higher, while patients ranked physical needs higher. When comparing nursing assessment data with nursing interventions and the patient's Q-sort, the findings indicate that nurses identify patients needs moderately well but fail to follow through with this information on written nursing care plans.

LLU Discipline

Nursing

Department

Nursing

School

Graduate School

First Advisor

Lucile Lewis

Second Advisor

Matilda Anabelle Mills

Third Advisor

Marianne Underwood

Fourth Advisor

Beulah Fenton

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Degree Level

M.S.

Year Degree Awarded

1973

Date (Title Page)

5-1973

Language

English

Library of Congress/MESH Subject Headings

Nursing Care; Nursing Process

Type

Thesis

Page Count

ix; 77

Digital Format

PDF

Digital Publisher

Loma Linda University Libraries

Usage Rights

This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Collection

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collection Website

http://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/

Repository

Loma Linda University. Del E. Webb Memorial Library. University Archives

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