The experience of patients in a professional nursing unit

The Geelong Hospital Professorial Nursing Unit was established in June 1989. The objectives of the Unit included the development of nursing practice. To further this objective many hospital routines and rituals were abandoned and primary nursing was introduced. This resulted in a milieu which is very different to the hospital's other patient care areas. One year later a qualitative study was carried out to provide an understanding of the relevance to patients and their significant others of their experience in the Unit. Insights obtained could assist nurses to identify the needs of patients and to design interventions to meet those needs.