Patient satisfaction of care provided by nurse practitioners in the outpatient clinic

Abstract

Background: Nurse practitioners (NPs) act on the intersection between care and cure. The amount of NPs in Dutch healthcare grows rapidly. Profiling and positioning of NPs is an ongoing process. Elements of patient satisfaction can be used to strengthen profiling and positioning of NPs.

Aim: Purpose of this qualitative study is to get insight in important elements determining patient satisfaction of patients with outpatient care in an academic hospital by NPs, in order to find the added value of NPs in relation to physicians.

Method: A qualitative study with a grounded theory approach was performed. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with patients (n=12) of two NPs. In vivo coding and forming themes were used for analysing. Connections between the themes were sought to interpret the data.

Results: Major themes found in this study were accessibility, personalised care, and continuity of care. Patients mentioned NPs as being more reachable and approachable compared to the physician. NPs take care of mind and body while physicians mainly deliver disease-related care. Patients feel like their NP knows them.

Conclusion: Deploying NPs will result in better accessibility, more personalised care and better continuity of care. NPs as first contact, the intersection between cure and care, and continuous factor in the care process for the patient will improve patient satisfaction and quality of care.

Recommendations: Recommendation is to deploy more NPs in daily care. Deploying NPs will improve patient satisfaction and quality of care. For further study, recommendation is to perform a large scale qualitative study, to give a more representative view of elements of patient satisfaction with the NP of the entire population.