The Satisfaction of Elder Patients about Emergency Nursing Care and the Influential Factors

Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Ching-Ching Tsai, MN, BN, RN , Department of Nursing, Chang Gung Institute of Technology, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan
Lesley Li-Mei Liu, MN, BN, RN , School of Nursing, Midwifery & Indigenous Health, University of Wollongong (Department of Nursing, Chang Gung Institute of Technology, in Taiwan), Wollongong, NSW, Australia
Lee-Fen Ni, RN, BN, MN , Department, Chang Gung Institute of Technology, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: understand the characteristics of the emergency elder patients and their satisfaction about the nursing care in Taiwan.

Learning Objective 2: uderstand the characteristics of emergency nurses their self-perception about their performance in providing nursing care to the elders.

Background: In Taiwan, aged populations occupy 9.5% of the total population in 2005 and it is expected to increase to 20% in 2025 (Ministry of the Interior, 2007).The disease characteristics and the need for health care of the elders are different from those of adults; therefore, emergency nurses should pay attention to providing good emergency nursing care to elder patients.

Aims: This study aims to understand the satisfaction of the elders about emergency nursing care and nurses' self-perception about their performance of nursing care to the elders, and further investigate their relatedness and influential factors.

Methods: Cross-sectional research design was employed in this study. Data was collected at a medical center in north Taiwan. Purposive sampling was used in this study. Two hundred elder patients and 133 emergency nurses were collected by interviewing those patients and asking nurses to fill in a questionnaire themselves. The questionnaire consists of 16 items covering environment, nursing care and information providing. The data will be scored by Liker 5 scale; a higher score indicates higher satisfaction about nursing care or self-perception of their performance; CVI value is 0.63~0.92 and internal consistency is 0.8~0.92. Statistical results will be generated by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15. Descriptive results will be described in percentage, means and standard deviation. One-Way ANOVA, T-test and Chi-square will be used to analyze the relationship between basic attributes and dependent variables. The relatedness between the satisfaction of the elders about emergency nursing care and the self-perception performance of nurses will be obtained by Pearson correlation analysis. The satisfaction of the elders in an emergency room will be predicted using Multiple Regression.

Conclusion: The results of this study are expected to strengthen emergency nurses' attention and understanding to the need of elder patients about nursing care.