A comparative study to assess the quality of nursing care rendered by staff nurses and the level of satisfaction perceived by patients in selected wards of selected government and private hospitals of Srinagar, Kashmir

The objectives of the study were to assess the quality of nursing care rendered by staff nurses in medical and surgical wards of government and private hospitals, to compare the quality of nursing care rendered by staff nurses in medical and surgical wards of government and private Hospitals, to find association between quality of nursing care rendered by staff nurses and selected demographic variables, to assess the level of satisfaction perceived by patients in medical and surgical wards of government and private hospitals, to compare the level of satisfaction perceived by patients in medical and surgical wards of government and private hospitals, to find association between level of satisfaction perceived by patients and selected demographic variables. Quantitative research approach and (descriptive comparative) research design was used. Tools used for data collection comprised of a structured observation checklist to assess quality of nursing care and a structured patient satisfaction questionnaire for assessment of patient satisfaction. Convenient sampling was adopted to select the 60 staff nurses, 30 from each hospital and 60 patients, 30 from each hospital. The study was conducted at a government (SMHS) hospital and a private (Noorah) Hospital, Srinagar.Data was analyzed and interpreted using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings showed that better quality of nursing care was rendered by staff nurses in private than in the government hospital. In government hospital, the areas in which staff nurses rendered good quality of care were nurse’s communication and behavior and patient safety, average quality in areas of documentation and environment and poor quality in the area of general nursing care. In case of private hospital, good quality of nursing care was rendered under the areas environment, patient safety, nurse’s communication and behavior and average quality of nursing care was rendered in the area documentation. No significant association was found between the quality of nursing care and selected demographic variables viz. age, educational qualification and years of work experience in both hospitals. A significant association was found between the level of satisfaction perceived by patients and age and marital status, and no significant association with gender, days of stay in the hospital and history of previous hospitalization in the government hospital. On average, in the government hospital, patients were satisfied with nurse’s communication and behavior and were dissatisfied with general nursing care and care facilities in the ward. In private hospital, no significant association was found between the level of satisfaction perceived by patients and demographic variables viz. age, gender, marital status, days of stay in the hospital and history of previous hospitalization. In the private hospital, on average the patients were satisfied with the general nursing care and nurse’s communication and behavior but were dissatisfied with care facilities in the ward.The study concluded that better quality of nursing care is rendered by staff nurses in private hospital than in government hospital. The level of satisfaction perceived by patients in private hospitals is better in private hospital than in government hospital.