Nursing Care Quality: Process and Outcome Relationships

Abstract

The relationships between variables in a proposed model for the quality of nursing care provided in the home were examined using a cross-sectional correlational design. Sixty patients discharged from a home-care agency were interviewed in their homes using instruments to measure the model's 7 variables. It was proposed that nursing care provided is related to 3 aspects of the interpersonal process - affective support, health information adequacy, and decisional control - and that these 3 variables are related to 3 outcomes - adherence, symptoms, and well-being. The findings support relationships between technical and interpersonal process components. Significant relationships were found between health information adequacy and adherence and between decisional control and well-being. The authors conclude that further refinement of the model will help to build a stronger foundation for the study and provision of quality nursing care.