Experience of Prioritizing in Nursing Care in India: A Qualitative Study Mandal Lata1,*, Seethalakshmi A2 1Research Scholar, Department of Nursing Foundation, Faculty of Nursing, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, India 2Reader & Head of Department Department of Nursing Foundation, Faculty of Nursing, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, India *Corresponding author: Ms Lata Mandal, Research Scholar, Department of Nursing Foundation, Faculty of Nursing, Sri Ramachandra, Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, India, Phone No: 9831483508
Online published on 6 April, 2019. Abstract Background Prioritizing in nursing care is also known as rationing of care or missed care. It implies any aspect of required patient care that is significantly delayed or omitted. The phenomenon is closely related to patient safety and quality of nursing Care. This Qualitative study was undertaken with the aim of acquiring a comprehensive understanding of nurses’ experience of Prioritization in nursing care. Material & Method Six focus group interviews were conducted among 38 purposively chosen nurses involved in direct patient care in three tertiary care hospitals of East and South India. Data was analysed through thematic content analysis. Results Three major themes emerged from the data: (a) Priority of Curative over Carative activities (b) Organizational factors effecting Prioritization (d) Perceived outcomes of Prioritization. Conclusion Prioritizing in nursing care follows the curative doctrine of health care by giving importance to the activities related to the patients’ medical needs. Organizational factors like human resource inadequacy and conflict over role responsibilities of nurses were the perceived reasons influencing prioritizing. The findings suggested that the phenomenon is detrimental for the quality of nursing care and patient related outcomes. Further research is recommended to capture the full spectrum of the phenomenon. Nursing leadership needs to acknowledge and create scope for explicit discussion of the issue among nurses and other health care members. Top Keywords Prioritization of care, Rationing of Care, Patient safety, Quality of Nursing Care. Top |