gms | German Medical Science

Background and Purpose: Person-centred approaches, complemented with a model of care delivery that ensures continuity of care, are essential to nursing care quality in hospital settings. In 2017, we revised the long-standing primary nursing approach and implemented a person-centred, professional practice model. For quality assurance purposes, we assessed patients’ perception of person-centeredness and evaluated nurses’ perceptions of primary nursing care coordination.

Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, we conducted structured interviews with a convenience sample of hospitalized patients using the Oncology Patients’ Perceptions of Quality of Nursing Care Scale; documentary analysis of patient records to assess care coordination; and an online survey with nursing staff using the Primary Nursing Care Coordination Questionnaire. Scores ranged from 1 (low) to 6 (high).

Results: 361 patients and 381 nursing staff participated. Patients reported high person-centered care quality, particularly regarding individuality and responsiveness of care, and nurse proficiency (median=5.4–5.6). In contrast, continuity of care scored lower (median=4.7). Nurses mostly agreed that the primary nursing approach ensured care coordination and was beneficial for person-centeredness (median of 5.0). However, items in relation to implementation of primary nursing throughout patients’ hospital stay scored lower (median=4.5). Documentary analysis confirmed that assigned primary nurses were scantly involved in admission assessment (25%) or discharge planning (43%).

Conclusions: Results demonstrate that overall care quality is high, whereas nursing care coordination along the patient pathway requires further improvements. While beneficial, primary nursing may not be sufficient to ensure continuity and coordination of care in an acute care hospital.