PATIENTS AND NURSES PRIORITIES DURING HOSPITALIZATION

All major nurse theorists have emphasized the need to understand
patients' perspectives. Nightingale was among the first to
recognize this need. However, she also said it was difficult to
obtain this information. Because nurses' actions are based on
their understanding of patients' needs, nurses can most effectively
help patients if they correctly understand patients' perceived
needs. Common understanding between nurses and patients will
provide the most effective base for nurses' clinical decision-
making. This phenomenologically based study will seek to obtain a better
understanding of how surgical patients experience hospitalization.
It will also clarify nurses' perceptions of these patients'
experience of both their hospitalization and the nursing care they
receive. These perceptions will allow a comparison to find both
areas of agreement and areas on incongruence. This study both replicates and extends prior research examining
patients' experience of hospitalization for surgery. A final report
will be published and distributed to each hospital involved in this
research. This, together with involvement of nursing staff from
each of the hospitals in the research, will enhance their ability to
use this information as an effective base for decision-making to
improve nursing care.