Patient perceived needs and experiences of person-centered care in patients with inflammatory arthritis

Health care is shifting toward a person-centered care (PCC) approach. For implementation of PCC, there may be a special role for nurse practitioners (NPs).

The aim of this study was to explore the patient-perceived levels of and needs for of PCC in inflammatory arthritis patients who visited the NP at the outpatient clinic of an academic hospital in the Netherlands.

A cross-sectional study was performed. Disease characteristics were inventoried from the patient records. Patients filled out the PCCoc/rheum instrument, an instrument to measure patient perceived PCC, and a questionnaire based on the 14 life areas of the Self-Management Web, extended with areas including pain, fatigue, and night's rest. Participants were asked which life areas caused problems, and whether these problems were discussed. Mean values were calculated for normally distributed data and medians for nonnormally distributed data.

Most of the patients had well-controlled disease (86.1%). The mean score of the PCCoc/rheum was 55.3 (SD 8.1). Patients experienced most problems in life areas fatigue (37.3%) and pain (35.3%), these were also the life areas that were most often addressed at consultation. The life areas that gave problems and that were least addressed during consultation were intimate relationships & sexuality (66.7%) and household chores (58.8%).

Despite an overall high level of patient perceived PCC delivered by NPs, patient with low disease activity frequently reported problems in life areas not addressed at consultation.

Implementation of the Self-Management Web and changing the focus of NP consultations may help to improve accommodating individual patient needs.