Pakistani Student Nurses’ perceptions of their hospital’s health professionals’ attitudes and suggested ways to improve patient care – An untainted view

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Feedback brings a fresh perspective and improvement in any organization. Health professionals (HPs) lose insight of the gaps in medical care. The views of student nurses can help improve systems. The objective of this study was to assess the views of our student nurses and how they perceive the way the doctors and HPs work in our hospital and comment on training, attitudes, care pathways, teamwork, and what needed to be improved. METHODS: A proforma based qualitative study was carried out at the Nurses’ Training Centre of PAF Hospital and Fazaia Medical College, Islamabad, from January to March 2020. After approval, a semi-structured proforma with open and closed ended questions was administered, in English and Urdu. The results were analyzed by comparative numbers and percentages for each question and descriptive responses were grouped in recurring themes and analyzed for content and their constructive value. RESULTS: Out of 85 nursing cadets, the proforma could be administered to 61(M=38(62.3%) and F=23(37.7%). Most were FSc with 26% graduates. Majority of the female students’ main reason for joining was to serve humanity, unlike most males. According to gender many responses were interestingly different. Majority of females thought male doctors were better (86%). Only 36% said the doctors were sincere in care of patients. Most thought that we needed to improve patient counseling. Most thought the seniors treated them unfairly, but bullying was negligible. They wanted the senior HPs to improve their attitudes and ensure adequate equipment in the wards. They were worried about personal security from patients and relatives. Dedicated mental health services to deal with stress of witnessing every day misery and death was suggested. CONCLUSIONS: Doctors need to improve their counseling skills and should talk more to the patients and their relatives. They should acknowledge the nursing students and improve teamwork. Belittling them in front of others harms their self-efficacy. Simple corrections like punctuality, ownership of their patients and improvement of equipment and systems can improve patient care.