Client Care-seeking Behaviours in a Community Setting and Their Sources of Satisfaction With Nursing Care

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Only a few studies have focused on the client's responses to nursing care and those have tended to examine selected aspects of an interaction. Factors that influenced patient behaviour in the hospital were studied by Tagliocozzo (1965). Two other studies by Becker (1978) and Christiansen (1978) have examined client compliance and non-compliance with prescribed care. Factors in hospitalization and illness which increased anxiety levels were the focus of a study by Wilson-Barnett (1978). A search of the literature failed to reveal any studies on the characteristics and processes inherent in a client-nurse interaction. Why do clients seek care? What do they expect when they seek care? What are the outcomes from their point of view? In examining some data collected as part of a larger study of nurses and clients, the answer to some of these questions appeared to be present in interviews that had been conducted with the clients. The availability of the data thus provided the impetus for this study. PURPOSES OF THE STUDY The purposes of the study were (1) to identify the characteristics and processes inherent in client care-seeking behaviour in a community health setting; and (2) to identify the sources of client satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the process of receiving nursing care.