Patient Perceptions of Nurse Listening Behaviors

Abstract

<p>The purpose of this proposed interpretive phenomenological study is to discover, describe, and interpret patient perceptions of nurse listening behaviors. Because nurse listening is linked to an enhanced patient experience and improved patient outcomes, it is considered important enough that patient perception of its occurrence is solicited by the United States (US) Centers for Medicare or Medicaid (CMS) as part of the “HCAPHS” (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) survey (https://www.cms.gov, n.d.). However, little can be found in the literature describing which nursing behaviors patients perceive as listening behaviors. For inpatient nurses to reflect on and improve their interactions with patients, ultimately improving patient outcomes, they need to know how their behaviors are perceived, e.g., which to develop and which to avoid. Understanding this phenomenon will require consulting patients who have received hospital nursing care to appreciate their perceptions. Using qualitative methodology, the goal of this study is to elicit perceptions of adult immunosuppressed patients who have recently been hospitalized, regarding whether their nurses listened to them and, if so, which nurse behaviors caused them to believe listening had occurred. Alternatively, understanding which behaviors caused the perception of non-listening would help create a contrary case, providing further clarification of the construct. Understanding the way in which patients perceive nurse behaviors as they pertain to listening has implications across a spectrum of consequences: clinical, personal, financial, and educational…perhaps the most compelling of which is improved patient outcomes and experience.</p>