Comparison the effects of primary nursing model and case method on the general and professional quality of patient care

Quality of care in the health system is one of the most important issues and one of the most important indicators in organizational accreditation. Use of managerial principles, such as the division of labor among nurses, can affect the quality of care.

This was a randomized double-blind clinical trial which included 44 nurses and 59 patients in 4 CCU wards. The intervention included 3 sessions of 2-hour workshops and then implementing the two above-mentioned care methods for the patients. After the intervention and at the time of discharge, the quality of care provided was assessed from the patients' point of view by means of quality care patient scale. Data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney test.

The results showed after the intervention, the mean values for general quality of patient care in the primary group and case method group were (14.2 ± 1.9) and (11.2 ± 2.8) respectively. Also the quality of professional care in the primary group and case method group were (18.2 ± 2.2) and (3.5 ± 14.2) respectively. Mann-Whitney test in both aspects showed that the quality of general and professional care was significantly higher in the primary group than in the case-method group (p <0.05).

The results of this study indicated that the primary method can be used in some wards, and was more effective than the case-method. Therefore, paying more attention to nursing care management planning is recommended.