Client satisfaction with a nurse-managed clinic

To survive and thrive in today's competitive health-care market, health-care providers must evaluate outcomes of their services, including client satisfaction, then use this information to set standards. In the past, standards of care for the elderly were based on tradition rather than evaluation of their effect on outcomes (Thorsland, 1986). There are, therefore, few guidelines for evaluating outcomes of care in any setting and almost none for care of the elderly in nurse-managed centers. As a first step in evaluating client satisfaction in a nurse-managed clinic a focus group discussion was conducted with nine clients of the Nurse Education Link to Aged (NELA) Wellness Center. The focus group participants indicated that the Center had done an excellent job of meeting physical and emotional health needs of clients. Participants especially liked the location of the clinic in the apartment building where they live. Additional services requested by participants included programs for coping with depression and stress, alcoholism, and arthritis, and for increasing social interaction between men and women.