Hip-fracture patients’ experience of involvement in their care: A Qulaitative study

Abstract

Little is known about how hip-fracture patients experience involvement in their own nursing care. Yet understanding this is essential in order to both meet patient expectations and ensure delivery of high-quality nursing care. The aim of the study was to describe how elderly hip-fracture patients experienced their involvement in the nursing care they received while in the orthopaedics ward. A descriptive design with a qualitative interview approach was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with16 hip-fracture patients, 14 days postoperative in 2012. Systematic Text Condensation was used to analyse the data collected. The findings reveal six themes: 1) experiencing severe pain, 2) feeling dependent on the nurses, 3) feeling they were not valued, 4) poor organisation, 5) positives and negatives of sharing a room with fellow patients, and 6) positive interactions with nurses that encouraged the patient. Hip-fracture patients reported experiencing very little involvement in their nursing care, to the extent that fundamental aspects of nursing care went unfulfilled. Patients did not feel valued by the nurses. Most patients described experiencing unbearable pain during their stay in the orthopaedics ward despite the existence of evidence-based and established guidelines for pain management. The result of this study indicates that there is much to do on a number of levels in the health care system to improve patient involvement in nursing care.