Patient Satisfaction scores are real. They are now being reliably measured and point to the scores’ strong relationship to nursing care and performance.
These scores reflect our patients’ expectations of being cared for with authentic caring and as a whole person. Patients are telling us that they know what caring feels like, and that they need and want to feel cared for.
Patients turn naturally to nurses to meet their caring needs.
Patients have been given their voice. These scores are validation of nursing’s value and impact on patients. Right?
This is a golden opportunity for nursing.
Yet….
Patient satisfaction scores are a part of Value Based Purchasing, which drives portions of reimbursement.
So the race to reach higher scores is compounded by the drive for economic gain.
This race focuses all eyes sharply on nursing practice and performance. Nurses at the bedside and frontline nurse leaders are feeling these heightened economic pressures.
Our patient’s voice turns out to be a double-edged gift/sword for nursing. The good news, the scores validate our value and impact on patients’ care experiences, and the bad news is that it is tipping the scales of high work stress levels for nurses.
How do we negotiate this? What sweeping innovation is going to be our response to our patient’s voice?
A patient is dependent on their nurse. A patient looks forward to their nurse for conversation, timely care, an advocate with doctors, administration, and roommates, and for a smile and gentle touch. The manifesto is a wonderful declaration for the nursing profession. I shall leave a copy of “Nursing 2015 Manifesto” at the Cleveland Clinic.
Gwyn,
Your discription says it all. It’s that dependency that makes nursing care so critical.
Thank you for your comment.
Pat
I am genuinely thankful to the holder of this web
site who has shared this impressive post at here.
Robyn,
Thank you. I hope you will join our journey for nurses.
pat
Hey just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your article seem to be running off the screen in Firefox.
I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something
to do with browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let you know.
The layout look great though! Hope you get the problem fixed soon. Cheers
Melvin, Thanks for the info. I’ll look into it. pat
Good blog post. I absolutely love this site. Thanks!
Logan, Thank you. I’m so glad. I hope you’ll join our journey. pat