J Nurs Acad Soc.  1977 Dec;7(2):1-10.

A Study of the Nursing Needs of Hospitalized Medical Patients by Means of Nursing History

• Chun KA

Abstract

Personalized patient centered nursing care is increasingly difficult to achive despite the fact that it remains one of our consistent goals. So, we must find away to individualized nursing care. One means, to achieve this is by use of the nursing history form, which has been developed to help the nurse make maximum use of her limited time with the patient, by obtaining systematically the information needed to plan his nursing care. The nursing history form can be used to collect data about individual nursing needs but also it lends itself to the collection of epidemiologic data relevant to the needs of patient population . So this study was undertaken in an attempt to describe the general characteristics of the population studied, to find out their perceptions and expectations related to their illness and hospitalization, to find out specific basic needs and to examine the relationship between the patients nursing needs and demographic characteristics through the responses to the nursing history questions. The study population defined and selected was all the patiens (70) who were admitted to Yonsei University Hospital from October 1 - 15, 1975. The direct interview method was used and the data were categorized by the investigator, according to the nature of responses to each question and were subjected to the percentile and the chi- square tests. The findings can be summarized as follows : 1. General chracteristics of the study population ; The population was made up mainly of urban patients who were highly educated. The age was equally distributed. 2. Patients,perceptions and expectatons related to illness and hospitalization; 88.6 % of the patients knew about the reason for hospitalization but 64.5% could state symptoms only. 37. 5% recognized the cause of illness. Approximately three fourth of the patients expressed on expectation for early recovery. 60.0% of the patient responses indicated. that they expected less than 10 days of hospitalization. Of the total responses regarding hospitalization, 45.7% were negative about the post hospitalization expectation, 45.7% expected to return to work. Yonsei University College of Nursing As a result of these findings, we can see that there is a great educational need, a psychological need and environmental need for adaptation to the hospital and a socio-economic need for the post - hospitalization period. Specific basic needs ; The physical needs include the problem of getting sufficiant sleep (50.0%), difficulty in food intake (47.1%), problems with hospital diet (47. 0%), abnormal condition of the skin(44. 3%), problems with bowel elimination(35.7%), assitance with bathing(35. 7%), pain(30.0%), difficulty in walking(30.0%), difficulty in seeing(30. 0%) problems in urina ry elimination(20. 0%), and difficulty in hearing(10. 0%), Nursing needs and epidemiologic characteristics ; Age distribution was related to the condition of the mouth but no significant differences were observed statistically with the patients responses to the other nursing history questions according to the epidemiologic varibles of age, sex, education and residence.

MeSH Terms

Age Distribution
Diet
Eating
Education
History of Nursing*
Hospitalization
Humans
Mouth
Nursing Care
Nursing*
Patient-Centered Care
Research Personnel
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