Caring Behaviors as Perceived by Emergency Nurses in Tunisia

Abstract

Patients are dissatisfied due to lack of human and relational aspects in care (Donabedian, 1992 cited in Rafii, 2008). Moreover, caregivers confirmed in a report published in 2013, that the quality of care in emergencies is poor (the Centre for Development of Best Practices in Health, 2013). To resolve this issue, Watson suggested applying treatments based on the Caring in this type of care despite its specific structure (Watson, 2010).Indeed, it would be important to measure the behavior of Caring nursing and emergency nurses from their perceptions. The focus of our research is to improve the quality of care in our emergency departments and consequently the patient satisfaction. The aim of this study is to describe perceptions of Caring for Emergency Nurses at University Hospitals of Greater Tunis and its relationship to socio-demographic characteristics. This is a correlational descriptive study, which was guided by the theory of "Human Caring" of Watson. To measure Caring behavior, the Caring behavior inventory (CBI) developed by Wolf, Giardino, Osborne and Ambrose (1994) was used. It is a questionnaire based on the caratifs factors of Watson's theory (Green, A, 2004). The study included all nurses who were trained in "License applied in Nursing" and working in the Emergency Departments of the university hospitals of Tunis (Charles Nicolle, Rabta, Mongi Slim and Habib Thameur). This survey showed that knowledge and professional skills belonged to the dimension that had the highest perception (m=1.06 +/- 0.37). Tunisians nurses were according more importance to the technical dimension and a less importance for relational dimensions. There is no relationship between the socio-demographic characteristics and the five dimensions of the CBI questionnaire. The results of this study did uncover a reality that has to undergo a serious change to improve the quality of care in Tunisia. Further studies are needed in order to improve quality of care and consequently patient satisfaction.

Keywords: Caring Behavior-Nurse-emergency-perception

DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/69-03

Publication date: December 31^st 2019