Mothers' satisfaction with two systems of providing care to their hospitalized children.

Background: Despite the paramount importance of the patient's satisfaction, there are limited data on mothers' satisfaction with the nursing care provided to their children in Iranian clinical settings.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate mothers' satisfaction with two systems of providing care to their hospitalized children.

Patients and methods: This research was a two-group quasi-experimental study. Primarily, the basics of the case method and the functional care delivery systems were educated to the practicing nurses of the study setting. Each system was implemented independently. After the implementation of each system, 200 mothers whose children were hospitalized in the pediatric care ward of Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Kashan, Iran, were invited to respond to the 28 -item Pediatric Family Satisfaction Questionnaire. Study data were analyzed by SPSS v. 16.0.

Results: Results were indicative of mothers' satisfaction with medical care delivered by case method as 13.2 ± 5.2 and by functional method as 13.17 ± 5.56. Also, no significant difference was seen between two groups (P = 0.4). Mothers' satisfaction with nursing care delivered by case method was 17.7 ± 4.43 and by functional method was 13.33 ± 5.69 and there was a significant difference between two groups (P = 0.004). Mothers' satisfaction with accommodations by case method was 16.78 ± 4.07 and by functional method was 17.9 ± 6.67 with a significant difference between two groups (P = 0.06).

Conclusions: Improving the quality of care is associated with higher patient's satisfaction. Accordingly, developing and implementing programs for improving nurses' communication and clinical skills can improve both care quality and patient outcomes.