+1 (629)348-3199The involvement of relatives in the care of patients in medical settings in Australia and Saudi Arabia - An ethnographic study
29th International Conference on Nursing Education and Research
December 05-06, 2019 | Dubai, UAE
Shadia Alshahrani
King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia
Posters & Accepted Abstracts : J Intensive Crit Care Nurs
Abstract:
Aims: To explore the role relatives play in the care of patients
in medical ward settings in Australia and Saudi Arabia and to
understand the nature of this involvement.
Background: There is little known about how nurses and
relatives respond to the involvement of relatives in patient
care and the impact of the participation on the quality of care.
Previous studies have focused on settings such as critical care
and paediatrics where relatives’ involvement as advocates is
mostly acknowledged and accepted.
Design: The study used a qualitative ethnographic approach
based on an interpretive paradigm.
Methods: Data collection was carried out in medical settings
in two major hospitals; one in Australia and another in Saudi
Arabia. Data were collected by observations and interviews
over a six-month period with three months spent in each
setting.
Results: In both fields nurses and relatives faced ongoing
ambiguity about the role relatives should play in the
hospital environment and nurses were challenged by the
unpredictability of relatives’ participation in patient care. The
nurses’ fear of taking responsibility and uncertainty about
the relatives’ role led them to take varied and individualised
approaches to the involvement of relatives in patient care.
Relatives were unclear about how to behave in the role,
what the needs of patients were and whether they were
contributing positively to care and this resulted in frustration.
Conclusion: The results show that ambiguity regarding the
role of relatives led to problems in patient care such as safety
concerns and conflict with nurses.
Biography:
E-mail:
shalshrani@kku.edu.saPDF HTML