| Learning Objective #1: List issues and solutions related to translating research instruments | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Identify and describe the relationship between nurse caring and the outcomes of patient satisfaction and health status |
As the world's most rapidly aging nation Japan faces enormous challenges as its health-care system strains to provide quality health care services for their citizens in a time of escalating costs and reduced resources. To date, nurses in Japan have little input into health care policy, and are generally not part of decision-making even about their own future. The need to identify specific outcomes as a result of nurse interventions was the impetus for this replication research which was previously conducted with patients in the US and demonstrated linkages between nurse caring and the outcomes of patient satisfaction and health status.
This study was conducted with 300 hospitalized patients in two major hospitals in western Japan using the Caring Assessment Tool © (CAT), which was developed in the US to identify and expose the contribution of nurse caring to positive patient outcomes. The CAT was translated from English to Japanese using the translation/back translation method. Results from the CAT demonstrated a positive correlation between nurse caring and the patient outcomes of patient satisfaction and health status. The process of translation and administration of the CAT revealed some of the difficulties of translating instruments and measuring outcomes cross culturally. These issues along with solutions will be discussed. The meaning of the positive correlation between nurse caring and patient outcomes of satisfaction and health status will be analyzed and described.