Perceived Nursing Care, Nurse-Patient Interaction and Comfort among Psychiatric Inpatients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Comfort is a significant result of mental nursing care, intricately linked to the quality of nurse-patient interactions and patients' perceptions of nursing care. This study aimed to examine whether perceived nursing care and nurse-patient interaction predict general comfort levels among psychiatric inpatients. A cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study was performed including 67 psychiatric inpatients at a state hospital from January to October 2025. Data were gathered utilizing a Sociodemographic Information Form, the Short General Comfort Questionnaire, the Patient Perception of Hospital Experience with Nursing Scale, and the Nurse-Patient Interaction Scale. Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression, and bootstrapped mediation analyses were performed. General comfort was positively correlated with perceived nursing care (r = 0.329, p = 0.007) and nurse-patient interaction (r = 0.322, p = 0.008). Regression analysis showed that these variables explained 14.8% of the variance in comfort (F = 5.571, p = 0.006), however mediation analysis shown that nurse-patient interaction did not significantly moderate this connection. Strengthening therapeutic communication and improving the quality of nursing care may enhance comfort among psychiatric inpatients.