Nurses’ perceptions of caring and uncaring nursing encounters in inpatient rehabilitation settings in South Africa: A qualitative descriptive study

Patients Receiving Palliative Care and Their Experiences of Encounters With Healthcare Professionals

The study aimed to explore experiences of encounters with health care professionals among patients receiving palliative cancer care in specialist palliative care inpatient units. A qualitative explorative study design was conducted in a specialist palliative care inpatient setting. Data collection was implemented using semi-structured individual interviews (20 palliative care cancer patients) and analysed with inductive content analysis. Palliative care patients experienced both meaningful and disrespectful encounters with healthcare professionals. The meaningful encounters encompassed authentic and supportive experiences, while the disrespectful encounters included indifferent and inadequate experiences. Caring for a patient receiving palliative care requires care beyond tending to a patient's physical needs. Patients should be encountered holistically and as equal human beings without highlighting their roles as patients. The healthcare professionals and the organisations should also acknowledge the importance of time and effort spent for encounters and conversations with the patients instead of concentrating resources mainly on physical care.

Perceptions of Caring Behaviors among Patients and Nurses

The concept of caring is fundamental to nursing practice. The aim of this study was to investigate patients' and nurses' caring behaviors and the possible differences between the two groups. In this descriptive and comparative study, 310 patients and 329 nurses from six general hospitals from Greece completed the Caring Behaviors Inventory-16. The mean score of Caring Behaviors Inventory-16 for patients was 78.94 (±17.85) and for nurses 80.27 (±9.36). The items "Demonstrating professional knowledge and skills" (Mean: 5.45 ± 3.62) and "Treating my information confidentially" (Mean: 5.34 ± 1.06) were the most important caring behaviors while the items "Including me in planning care" (Mean: 4.36 ± 1.56), and "Treating me as an individual" (Mean: 4.55 ± 1.46) were the least important caring behaviors for patients. For nurses, the most important caring behavior was "Treating patients" information confidentially" (Mean: 5.43 ± 0.94) and the least important was "Returning to the patient voluntarily" (Mean: 4.57 ± 3.68). Significant differences were observed in items: "Attentively listening to me/the patient" (t = -2.05, p = 0.04), "Treating me/the patient as an individual" (t = -7.82, p = 0.00), "Being empathetic or identifying with me/the patient" (t = -2.80, p = 0.00), and "Responding quickly when I/the patient call (t = -2.01, p = 0.04). Respect, privacy, and dignity were the most important caring behaviors for nurses while for patients they were knowledge, skills, and safety.