Factors affecting care on acute hospital wards
Intended for healthcare professionals
Art & Science Previous     Next

Factors affecting care on acute hospital wards

Stacey Dicks Project worker, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London
Robert Chaplin Research fellow, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London
Chloë Hood Programme manager, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London

The experiences of patients, carers and staff were sought in the first stage of a quality improvement programme. Stacey Dicks and colleagues report on the project’s results

Aim To identify positive and negative aspects of the quality of care for older adults admitted to acute hospital wards during the Quality Mark pilot study.

Method A total of 306 patients and carers and 157 ward staff from 12 wards in six hospitals participated in a pilot study by completing questionnaires about the quality of care on the ward. They stated how much they agreed with a number of statements about care and provided additional free text responses.

Results Patients rated staff attitudes highly, while staff expressed confidence in their skills in providing care. Patients rated the quality of food and the availability of staff lowest. Thematic analysis identified concerns about the ward environment, staffing levels and nutrition.

Conclusion Attention needs to focus on improving inpatient environments, nutrition and staff availability.

Nursing Older People. 25, 1, 18-23. doi: 10.7748/nop2013.01.25.1.18.s9510

Correspondence

stacey.dicks@hotmail.com

Peer review

This article has been subject to double blind peer review

Conflict of interest

None declared

Received: 25 September 2012

Accepted: 26 November 2012

Want to read more?

RCNi-Plus
Already have access? Log in

or

3-month trial offer for £5.25/month

Subscribe today and save 50% on your first three months
RCNi Plus users have full access to the following benefits:
  • Unlimited access to all 10 RCNi Journals
  • RCNi Learning featuring over 175 modules to easily earn CPD time
  • NMC-compliant RCNi Revalidation Portfolio to stay on track with your progress
  • Personalised newsletters tailored to your interests
  • A customisable dashboard with over 200 topics
Subscribe

Alternatively, you can purchase access to this article for the next seven days. Buy now


Are you a student? Our student subscription has content especially for you.
Find out more