Abstract
Aim: To assess the agreement between patients' self- reported degree- of- worry (DOW) and nurses' evaluation of patients' DOW.
Design: An observational cohort study with patients and their primary nurses.
Methods: Between 22 February and 27 March 2021, data collection among patients and their nurses in an emergency department was carried out. Patients ≥18 years, cognitively intact and Danish or English speaking were eligible to participate. Nurses regardless of seniority and gender were eligible for participation. The single- item degree- of- worry measure, ‘how worried are you about the condition you are here today on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is minimally worried and 10 is maximum wor-ried’ as well as information on gender, age, comorbidity, triage level and medical reason for encounter was collected from patients. The corresponding nurses were asked; ‘how worried do you think your patient is about the condition he/she is there today on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is minimally worried and 10 is maximum wor-ried?’ Nurses also supplied data on gender, age, seniority as a Registered Nurse and in the ED. Agreement between patients' self- reported degree- of- worry and nurses' evaluation of patients' degree- of- worry was assessed with weighted Cohen's Kappa.Results: A total of 194 patient– nurse pairs were included for analysis. The agree-ment between patients' DOW and nurses' evaluation of patients' DOW categorised as DOWlow, DOWmiddle and DOWhigh was in total agreement in n= 85 pairs (43.8%) of the ratings, which corresponds to a weighted Cohen's Kappa of 0.19 (0.08– 0.30; p< 0.001).
Conclusion: Nurses estimate of their patients' DOW was in very poor agreement. This indicates that nurses are not able to assess the patient's DOW to a satisfactory level. This result is troubling as it may have serious consequences for patient care as it indicates that the nurses do not know their patients' perspectives.
Design: An observational cohort study with patients and their primary nurses.
Methods: Between 22 February and 27 March 2021, data collection among patients and their nurses in an emergency department was carried out. Patients ≥18 years, cognitively intact and Danish or English speaking were eligible to participate. Nurses regardless of seniority and gender were eligible for participation. The single- item degree- of- worry measure, ‘how worried are you about the condition you are here today on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is minimally worried and 10 is maximum wor-ried’ as well as information on gender, age, comorbidity, triage level and medical reason for encounter was collected from patients. The corresponding nurses were asked; ‘how worried do you think your patient is about the condition he/she is there today on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is minimally worried and 10 is maximum wor-ried?’ Nurses also supplied data on gender, age, seniority as a Registered Nurse and in the ED. Agreement between patients' self- reported degree- of- worry and nurses' evaluation of patients' degree- of- worry was assessed with weighted Cohen's Kappa.Results: A total of 194 patient– nurse pairs were included for analysis. The agree-ment between patients' DOW and nurses' evaluation of patients' DOW categorised as DOWlow, DOWmiddle and DOWhigh was in total agreement in n= 85 pairs (43.8%) of the ratings, which corresponds to a weighted Cohen's Kappa of 0.19 (0.08– 0.30; p< 0.001).
Conclusion: Nurses estimate of their patients' DOW was in very poor agreement. This indicates that nurses are not able to assess the patient's DOW to a satisfactory level. This result is troubling as it may have serious consequences for patient care as it indicates that the nurses do not know their patients' perspectives.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences |
| Publication status | Published - 30 Jan 2023 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- emergency medicine
- nursing
- patient-centred care
- public health
- self-rated worry
