Keeping calm on a busy day—an interpersonal skill home care patients desire in health workers: hermeneutical phenomenological method

BACKGROUND: In Western countries, many health and social care provisions have been transferred to primary care, and most older patients wish to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. For older patients who live alone, health workers could be their only personal contacts. Hence, health workers’ personal skills affect their relationships with these patients. Accordingly, this study aimed to shed light on the interpersonal skills needed by health workers to establish good relationships with older home care patients and highlight the importance of interpersonal skills training in nursing education. METHODS: This study adopted a hermeneutical phenomenological approach. The qualitative method was used to elicit data on patients’ perspectives. Ten home care patients were interviewed individually in their own homes between December 2019 and January 2020. RESULTS: Despite individual variations, health workers’ interpersonal skills are of significance with regard to the social well-being of patients living at home. The findings revealed that patients want health workers to be mentally present, congruent in their communications, calm and relaxed during the available time spent with them, and capable of facilitating autonomy. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to present patients’ perspectives to ensure that nursing education is geared towards patients’ best interests. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: The Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD): 953937.