Obtaining patients' views of nursing care to inform the development of a patient satisfaction scale

Patient satisfaction is increasingly being measured as an indication of the effectiveness of nursing care. At present, however, there are no validated UK scales available specifically addressed to nursing. The aim of the present study was to develop a sensitive, valid and reliable measure of patient satisfaction. This paper describes the first phase of the study, the development of a multidimensional concept of satisfaction from the patients' perspective. Using qualitative methods, patients were interviewed both in hospital and following discharge. Eleven main concepts were identified: nurses' manner, attentiveness, availability, reassurance, individual treatment, openness/informality, information, professionalism, ward organization, nurses' knowledge and ward environment. Beginning with customer-defined values has provided the starting point for the development of a scale to measure patients' satisfaction with nursing using concepts important to patients, rather than hospital personnel or research teams.