Perceptual and
Mot07
Skills, 1979, 49, 170. @ Perceptual and Motor Skills 1979
PERCEIVED NEEDS AND SATISFACTION WITH NURSING CARE BY SPOUSES OF PATIENTS IN THE CORONARY CARE UNIT ELIZABETH ZAWATSKI,' BARRY KATZ, A N D KATHLEEN KREKELER
Saint Louis University This report describes an exploratory investigation of perceived needs and degree of satisfaction with nursing care reported by spouses of patients in the Coronary Care Unit. Data were collected during the period June 15-September 30, 1977 at a 620-bed private teaching hospital located in a suburb of a large midwestern city. Using patients' charts spouses eligible for the study were identified and contacted in the hospital by the principal investigator for their consent to participate in the study. The investigator explained the project and stressed the confidentiality of the responses and in addition informed the subjects that she was not employed by the hospital. A total of 23 people were contacted to participate in the study and of these 20 people consented. The sample of 15 females and 5 males had a mean age of 57.8 yr. and a mean duration of marriage of 32.9 yr. Most subjects were middle-class ( 1 ) . Primary diagnoses of patients were 8 myocardial infarction, 6 unstable angina, and the other 6 miscellaneous heart ailments. An instrument of the Likert-type to measure degree of satisfaction with nursing care had three subscales: I. Intrapersonal ("personal qualities of the nurse," 9 items), 11. Interpersonal ("interaction of the nurse with others," 8 items), 111. Educational ("degree of information provided by nurse," 8 items), all developed by the researchers. Internal consistency reliability for each subscale was assessed using coefficient alpha; reliabilities were .95, .95, and .90 for the respective subscales. As distributions of the data were unknown and the sample size was 20, a nonparametric analysis, a Friedman test, was conducted to check whether degree of satisfaction varied across subscales. For each subiect total scores on each subscale were c o m ~ u t e dand ranked ( 1 lowest, 3 highest). The b e a n ranks across subjects were as follo&: Scale I (2.55)", Scale 11 (2.32), Scale 111 (1.13). x- of 23.48 ( d f = 2. fi < .001) was significant and indicated that the subiects were 'iess satisfied- with the' extent t; which nurses supplied them with information about the patient and the patient's illness than with personal qualities of the nurse. Three Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to compare male and female subjects on scores on the three subscales. None of these tests were significant ( p 5 .05). In addition those subjects who had previous exposure to the unit were compared with those who had no such prior exposure on each of the three subscales. All three Mann-Whitney U tests were nonsignificanc ( f ~k .05). A final task of the subjects was to rank order six groups of people as being most supportive or helpful during the critical care stage ( 1 most helpful, G least helpful). The mean ranks across subjects were as follows: physicians (1.75), nurses (2.75), relatives (2.90). friends (4.25). pastor (4.50). and neighbors ( 4 . 8 5 ) . A Friedman test indicated that these ranks were significantly different ( x 2 = 42.11, df = 5, p .001), with physicians being perceived as most helpful and supportive. These data point to strengths and weaknesses of nursing care of patients in the Coronary Care Unit as perceived by their spouses; they indicate that mote effort by a nurse should go into educating family members regarding the patient's illness.
Mot07
Skills, 1979, 49, 170. @ Perceptual and Motor Skills 1979
PERCEIVED NEEDS AND SATISFACTION WITH NURSING CARE BY SPOUSES OF PATIENTS IN THE CORONARY CARE UNIT ELIZABETH ZAWATSKI,' BARRY KATZ, A N D KATHLEEN KREKELER
Saint Louis University This report describes an exploratory investigation of perceived needs and degree of satisfaction with nursing care reported by spouses of patients in the Coronary Care Unit. Data were collected during the period June 15-September 30, 1977 at a 620-bed private teaching hospital located in a suburb of a large midwestern city. Using patients' charts spouses eligible for the study were identified and contacted in the hospital by the principal investigator for their consent to participate in the study. The investigator explained the project and stressed the confidentiality of the responses and in addition informed the subjects that she was not employed by the hospital. A total of 23 people were contacted to participate in the study and of these 20 people consented. The sample of 15 females and 5 males had a mean age of 57.8 yr. and a mean duration of marriage of 32.9 yr. Most subjects were middle-class ( 1 ) . Primary diagnoses of patients were 8 myocardial infarction, 6 unstable angina, and the other 6 miscellaneous heart ailments. An instrument of the Likert-type to measure degree of satisfaction with nursing care had three subscales: I. Intrapersonal ("personal qualities of the nurse," 9 items), 11. Interpersonal ("interaction of the nurse with others," 8 items), 111. Educational ("degree of information provided by nurse," 8 items), all developed by the researchers. Internal consistency reliability for each subscale was assessed using coefficient alpha; reliabilities were .95, .95, and .90 for the respective subscales. As distributions of the data were unknown and the sample size was 20, a nonparametric analysis, a Friedman test, was conducted to check whether degree of satisfaction varied across subscales. For each subiect total scores on each subscale were c o m ~ u t e dand ranked ( 1 lowest, 3 highest). The b e a n ranks across subjects were as follo&: Scale I (2.55)", Scale 11 (2.32), Scale 111 (1.13). x- of 23.48 ( d f = 2. fi < .001) was significant and indicated that the subiects were 'iess satisfied- with the' extent t; which nurses supplied them with information about the patient and the patient's illness than with personal qualities of the nurse. Three Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to compare male and female subjects on scores on the three subscales. None of these tests were significant ( p 5 .05). In addition those subjects who had previous exposure to the unit were compared with those who had no such prior exposure on each of the three subscales. All three Mann-Whitney U tests were nonsignificanc ( f ~k .05). A final task of the subjects was to rank order six groups of people as being most supportive or helpful during the critical care stage ( 1 most helpful, G least helpful). The mean ranks across subjects were as follows: physicians (1.75), nurses (2.75), relatives (2.90). friends (4.25). pastor (4.50). and neighbors ( 4 . 8 5 ) . A Friedman test indicated that these ranks were significantly different ( x 2 = 42.11, df = 5, p .001), with physicians being perceived as most helpful and supportive. These data point to strengths and weaknesses of nursing care of patients in the Coronary Care Unit as perceived by their spouses; they indicate that mote effort by a nurse should go into educating family members regarding the patient's illness.
