Date Approved

1995

Graduate Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Nursing (M.S.N.)

Degree Program

College of Nursing

First Advisor

Jean Nagelkerk

Second Advisor

Linda Urden

Third Advisor

Donna VanIwaarden

Abstract

There is a need for nurse administrators to understand how the use of nursing resources impacts the quality of patient care. A descriptive correlational research design was used to examine the relationship between R.N. time spent in direct care activities, nursing skill mix and patient perceptions of nurse caring. A secondary analysis was conducted using data previously collected as part of a large-scale data set from a 529 bed community teaching hospital. The data consisted of 76,491 activity samples obtained through work sampling of 16 nursing units, 2 categories of unit skill mix measurements, and a Caring Behaviors Inventory completed by 313 patients. A significantly positive relationship was found between the percentage of time R.N.s spent in direct care activities and patient perceptions of nurse caring (r =.6874, p {dollar}<{dollar}.01). A significantly positive relationship was also found between the percentage of R.N.s in the skill mix and patient perceptions of nurse caring (r =.50, p {dollar}<{dollar}.05).

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