Margaret L. Mancuso
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 326
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Patient satisfaction is receiving greater attention due to the rise in pay-for-performance and public release of data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey (HCAHPS) (HHS, 2006). Incorporating this survey into reimbursement plans and quality monitoring systems has ensured that measuring and reporting patient satisfaction is important to value-based healthcare, including nurses' care delivery. Watson's Caring Theory (1979) was the lens through which registered nurses' reports were examined. Benner's landmark work (1984) was also used to examine levels of competence in novice and expert nurses. The purpose of this study was to determine whether, and to what degree, acute care novice and expert registered nurses reported how their caring behaviors, based on Watson's 10 carative factors (1979), impacted patient satisfaction. The unit of analysis included novice and expert nurses who practiced in a community hospital. A descriptive, correlational, mixed methods study was employed. This study concluded that novice and expert registered nurses reported their caring behaviors greatly impacted patient satisfaction. In addition, patient satisfaction was greatly impacted by novice nurses' task-oriented behaviors, reliance on past experiences, and instilled personal values, as well as expert nurses' emotional needs and clinical wisdom. Incongruence existed among study participants' reports that caring behaviors greatly impacted organizational patient satisfaction scores. Hospital-based nurse educators need to consider pedagogical and programmatic innovations inclusive of the nursing domains reported on the HCAHPS survey. Research is needed that focuses on bridging the incongruence between novice and expert registered nurses' reports of their impact on patient satisfaction and actual patient satisfaction scores.