Nurses' attitude towards ‘difficult’ and ‘good’ patients in eight public hospitals

Abstract

Nurses' attitude towards 'difficult' and 'good' patients in eight public hospitalsThe paper is part of a large-scale study exploring violence in nursing conducted between 2005 and 2006. There were various objectives for each aspect of the study. Qualitative descriptive survey was selected. The population were all nurses licensed with the South African Nursing Council. Non-probability sampling technique was utilized to distribute confidential questionnaires to nurses employed in the eight public hospitals during 2006. Good patients were rewarded with tender loving care although difficult patients were ignored or needed interventions deliberately delayed. Because of the severe shortage of qualified staff, nurses had to rationale care in order to meet needs of all their patients. However, nurses found to violate health-care consumers were counselled, disciplined and/or dismissed.

Patient neglect in healthcare institutions: a systematic review and conceptual model

“…Others studies did not provide a definition, but referred to behaviours broadly in-line with Lachs and Pillemer [1] (i.e. not meeting the needs of a dependent) [34,36,40,41,43,44]. These are consistent with how the UK government describes neglect in the care of vulnerable people (e.g.…”

“…In terms of caring neglect, surveys and interviews with healthcare staff on their observations (and in some cases participation) of neglect highlighted being rude to patients, not responding to patient complaints of pain, purposefully delaying help for patients, intentionally ignoring patients, avoiding contact with patients, preferring to socialise with colleagues than treat patients, and prioritising some patients over other others due to liking them more [32,34,35,38,41]. Surveys and interviews with patients and families also recurrently highlighted behaviours associated with caring neglect, and these often focused on failing to provide emotional support [36,37,42,44].…”

A Qualitative Inquiry into the Complex Features of Strained Interactions: Analysis and Implications for Health Care Personnel

“…The lack of reflective capacities and the inability to calculate a strategy are individual factors that are labeled as bad behaviors in a notoptimal (difficult) patient. 3,37 We assert that the process of reciprocal struggle in social settings, such as a customer filling a prescription, is similarly an iterative process; parts are presented to each agent to achieve the goal.…”

“…[1][2][3] Health care professionals who interact with patients must be able to successfully use communication skills. [4][5][6] Good communication is the key to interpersonal skills, which in turn is central to successful clinical practice.…”

Coping with loss of control in the practice of medicine.

“…When we use the lens of "control," the ideal patient is one who agrees with the physician's diagnosis, accepts the physician's agenda, is willing to follow the physician's treatment plan, in general shares the physician's world view, and finally, is grateful for the physician's time and assistance (Khalil, 2009). Such patients support the physician's feelings of being "in control" of the encounter and the relationship.…”