MEDICAL SYSTEMS' QUALITY EVALUATED BY PERCEPTIONS OF NURSING CARE: FACING COVID 19 PANDEMIC

The aim of this qualitative systematic review is to review the studies on patient perceptions of nursing care quality. All the papers available in the first five pages of Google Scholar using time frames of any time and 2016-2020 (10 web pages) and 2020 (five web pages) were reviewed. The review found that surveys using many different types of measurement frameworks was the methodology of choice for a majority of works. Among the topics, framework validation, care dimensions and specific problems like AIDS, surgery patients and cancer patients were researched most. Many types of measurement frameworks have been used for measuring patient perceptions of nursing care quality. Factors related to the patient, care environment and nursing were identified by the researchers. Individualised care, communicating the truth, competent and prompt care and response to various personal care needs of the patient, timely attention to urgent calls, safety, avoiding medical errors, empathy and instilling trust and confidence in the patient are important care dimensions. Patient-related dimensions are mainly demographic. They include age, education, occupation, income, marital status and certain behavioural attributes, which are outside the control of hospitals. Nurses may be able to adjust to individual behavioural problems to some extent, but not of all patients all the time. Nursing dimensions like working environment, staff strength, leadership effectiveness, involvement or empowerment for independent decision making, strain and burnout and work-life balance problems affect their care quality at professional level. At their personal level, knowledge, skills, competence and training, positive attitude towards the profession are important determinants. A care quality improvement bundle can be designed by the hospital to facilitate the nurses to improve on these factors. The hospitals need to obtain periodical feedback on the administrative aspects of nursing care from the nurses and make any improvement required to provide the proper working conditions without strain and burnout and facilitating work-life balance.