Patients' perceptions of the quality of psychiatric nursing care: findings from a small-scale descriptive study

This study tested a development of the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) (Flanagan, 1954) in a field-study to gather incidents of high- and low-quality nursing care as perceived by 24 patients with mental-health problems in two admission wards of a psychiatric hospital. The development of the CIT used took the form of an interactive, guided interview, developed previously for the same purpose with other groups of patients and their nurses and is discussed in detail elsewhere. This paper describes the results of the study which throws light on patients' perceptions of high- and low-quality nursing care in an acute-care setting. Qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed 239 indicators of high- and low-quality psychiatric nursing care which were grouped into six main categories. Patients' responses indicated the importance attached to the therapeutic functions of the psychiatric nurse, in particular the value placed by patients on nurses being active listeners. Aspects of practice most often identified as of poor quality included nurses' failure to explain their actions, the negative impact of nurses' group behaviour on ward atmosphere, their inadequate knowledge base and the negative consequences of inadequate staffing. The CIT fulfilled its potential as an interactive method of eliciting the views of this patient group of the quality of nursing care.