Patients' Satisfaction with Nursing Care Quality in Medical Wards at Selected Hospital in Chennai, South India

BACKGROUND: Patient satisfaction is currently accepted as an outcome criteria and standard instrument to gauge the quality of nursing care. The aim was to assess the level of patients' satisfaction with nursing care quality in medical wards. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 124 samples in medical wards of a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India in 2016. Convenience sampling technique was adopted. Self-administered “Patient Satisfaction with Nursing Care Quality Questionnaire” (PSNCQQ) was used to collect data on the day of discharge. The analysis was done by frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, independent t-test, and ANOVA. RESULTS: Out of 124 participants, the level of satisfaction was excellent for 28.23%, very good for 58.06% and good for 13.71% with regards to overall quality of nursing care in medical wards. The mean (SD) value for overall patients' satisfaction with nursing care quality was 78.88 (4.84) out of 95 with the mean percentage of 83.03% which shows excellent patient satisfaction. The patients' perception component mean (SD) 18.35 (5.09) gained highest satisfaction than nurses' communication and nursing care components. The satisfaction of nursing care mean (SD) 46.46 (3.38) was higher than satisfaction of nurses' communication mean (SD) at 32.42 (2.57). CONCLUSIONS: The patients admitted and treated in medical wards were most satisfied with nursing care quality they received. The results showed that the communication component can be improved. There was no statistically significant association between patient satisfaction of nursing care quality and background variables.