Factors Affecting Patient Satisfaction with Follow-up by a Nurse Practitioner in an Outpatient Rheumatology Clinic

Although nurse practitioners have been shown to be accepted by patients in a rheumatology clinic, variables that could explain differences in acceptability have not been examined in the United States. We surveyed 150 consecutive patients followed up by nurse practitioners concerning satisfaction in 6 areas (empathy with the patient, provision of information, attitude toward the patient, technical competence, accessibility to the caregiver, and overall satisfaction). Patients expressed a high level of satisfaction with follow-up by a nurse practitioner. There was no correlation between satisfaction questionnaire score and age, sex, last grade of school completed, duration of disease, visual analog pain scale score, number of arthritis-related medications, or total number of medications. Satisfaction questionnaire scores were not statistically different between male and female patients, or between patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other patients. Follow-up by a nurse practitioner was widely accepted by our patients, independent of age, sex, duration of disease, or type of disease.