Care recipients need their fundamental care to be provided in a manner that is relationship centred and integrates their physical, psychosocial and relational needs. Fundamental care involves actions on the part of the nurse or other healthcare professional that respects and focuses on a person’s essential needs to ensure their physical and psychosocial wellbeing (Jangland et al 2018). If these needs are not met, there can be serious consequences for the patient (Feo & Kitson, 2016). For example, if oral care is not provided, the consequences may include difficulty maintaining nutrition, weight loss, speech and communication difficulties, a decrease in social interaction and pain (Sonde, Emami, Kiljunen & Nordenram, 2011)
While it is implicit in much of the literature relating to fundamental care that these core needs are the primary responsibility of nurses, what is not known is if this is the predominant view of the nurses. It is also important to explore how these perceived responsibilities are potentially reinforced or subverted within pre and post registration nursing curriculum. Any dissonance between what is taught, what is expected by healthcare organisations, and what actually occurs when care is being considered can impact on nursing practice and, as a consequence, patient outcomes. Clear and mutually understood lines of responsibility for care delivery are required to ensure optimal patient outcomes and prevent missed care.
Methods:
Exploring responsibility and identifying members of the multidisciplinary team who are perceived by nurses to be responsible for various fundamentals of care may highlight the necessity for the concept of fundamental care to be highlighted across all healthcare professions. In turn, this may lead to recommendations for inter professional education and the inclusion of the fundamentals of care in the curriculum for all healthcare professionals.
Results:
This presentation will describe the results of an international study exploring the influence of nursing education related to the fundamentals of care. The study explored the ability of nursing students’ to correctly recognise and identify the fundamental care needs of various patients. Study participants were also asked to indicate who they believed was responsible for meeting these fundamental care needs, and these results will be described and the implications of these findings will be discussed in this presentation.
Conclusion:
Implications for research, nursing and allied health education and practice will be described.