Sociological Analysis of Fulfillment of Nursing Needs and Expectations of Patients in Teaching Hospitals in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Nurses have become central to many lives but how well nurses have fulfilled clients’ expectations is often a matter of great concern. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine fulfillment of nursing needs and expectations of patients in teaching hospitals in Northern Nigeria. Descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted for the study. Questionnaire, structured interview and focus group discussion (FGD) were used as instruments for data collection. The quantitative data was coded and analysed using descriptive methods such as frequency tables, percentages and measure of central tendencies while inferential statistics (chi-square analysis) was used to test the hypothesis. These were triangulated with the content analyses of information from the focus group discussions. The finding showed that the mean age of respondents is 41 years and they cut across socio-economic classes and units of the hospitals. Some (41.5%) of the respondents said their social needs/expectations were not met or satisfied while 33.5% claimed that their psychological needs/expectations was not fulfilled by nurses during hospitalization. On the other hand, majority (77.9%) and (69.4%) of the patients said that their security and physical needs/expectations from nurses were respectively fulfilled. The test of significant relationship between the variables showed that there were statistically significant differences in the patients’ nursing care needs/expectations and fulfillment of needs and expectations by nurses in the teaching hospitals in Northern Nigeria. It is therefore recommended that, curriculum of nursing training, workshops and seminars should be strengthened with the components of human relation and behavioral science.

Keywords: Patients, Hospital, Nursing needs, Expectations, Fulfillment, Satisfaction