NURSES' AND ELDERLY’S' VIEWPOINTS REGARDING QUALITY OF NURSING CARE IN THE EDUCATIONAL HOSPITALS OF SANANDAJ CITY

High quality of care is the right of patients and the responsibility of nurses. More quality of patient care has positive effects on health care outcomes. So, the present study was aimed to compare the viewpoints of nurses and patients about the quality of nursing care. A total of 151 elderly patients and 109 nurses, working in teaching hospitals in Sanandaj, Iran participated in this descriptive-analytical study. The convenience sampling method was used to recruit elderly patients and the nurses were entered to the study by census method. Data were collected using the quality patient care scale (Qual Pacs). Descriptive statistics and independent t-test were used to analysis the collected data. Mean age of the elderly patients and nurses were 33.46 ± 5.13 and 72.48 ± 6.63, respectively. About 98.2% of the nurses and 29.8% of the elderly patients reported that the quality of nursing care was desirable. The rest of nurses (2.8%) and elderly patients (72.2%) reported that to some extent desirable. The results also showed that there was a significant difference between viewpoints of the elderly patients and nurses about quality of nursing care and its subscales including psychological, communicational and physical aspects. The results of the present study indicated that there is a gap between the viewpoints of nurses and elderly patients on the quality of provided nursing care. It seems that to improve the quality of nursing care and to meet the elderly patients’ needs, appropriate planning should be undertaken in the process of providing services to this vulnerable group.