INPATIENTS SATISFACTION WITH NURSING SERVICES AT KING KHALID UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

ABSTRACT: Recent development and changes in health care services in Saudi Arabia have encouraged a search a search for comprehensive and established measurements of the quality of care. Patient satisfaction with nursing care in particular has ferquently been used as a sensitive and objective measure of quality of hosiptal services. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study are: (1) to assess the level of inpatient satisfaction with nursing care (PSWC) in the various wards of the hospital; (2) to assess the socio-demographic determinants of PSWC in addition to the effects of duration of hospital stay and type of wards on the level of satisfaction. METHODS: The sample consisted of randomly selected 450 inpatients with probability proportion to the size of the wards. The data was collected by personal interviews using a 21-item structured questionnaire pertaining to nursing services. RESULTS: The results revealed that the instrument of measurement was valid and reliable. The overall mean satisfaction score was 2.4 (77%) and the highest mean satisfaction was for items on skillfulness and the lowest score was for communication items. Multiple regression analysis indicated that sex, age, marital status and duration of stay are the most imortant predictors of PSWC; female, young, married and short duration of hospital stay have the highest satisfaction score. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, this study has highlighted the aspects of nursing care at King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH) which need re-examination by the management. The most importance findings have been that there is: (1) a shortage of nurses at the hospital; (2) limited communication between nurses and patients: most probably due to cultural and language barriers; (3) no proper oversight of patients personal hygiene; (4) dissatisfaction of male patients with most of the nursing care rendered. These results offer the hospial management the opportunity to work out stategies to connect the deficiencies highlighted.