The Experience of Implementing the Welcoming Nurse Program in Iran Psychiatric Center: Quality Improvement

Considering the benefits that a welcoming environment can have for the patients and their families, and specifically for people with mental disorders, this study aims to launch a welcoming program in the Iran psychiatric Hospital and assess its effectiveness in improving the quality of and satisfaction with the services for patients with mental disorders.

The welcoming unit of the hospital was officially launched and began to operate since September 2017. In the welcoming program, the nurse first introduced herself to the patients and their families, and if needed, made them familiar with the hospital and its goals and environment, how to reach psychiatrists, and regulations during hospitalization. This program continued by acquainting patients with their rights, the hospital's rules, treatment team, welfare amenities, inpatient wards, electroconvulsive therapy unit, clinics, support center, and by handling complaints and criticisms. For internal evaluation, a survey form with 5 open-ended questions was designed without including demographic characteristics and distributed among the hospital departments. The responses were collected and analyzed using the content analysis method.

The results of internal evaluation showed that 92% of the patients and their families were satisfied with the welcoming program and perceived it as very good and excellent. Half of the patients and their families (50%) believed that some nurses were caring and some were careless and did not take care of problems well. They perceived that psychiatrists and psychologists did not spend much time with the patient, and their visits were done very late.

Based on the perceptions of the patients and their families about the welcoming program, it seems that they are satisfied with the program in overall. The result can motivate other psychiatric and non-psychiatric centers in Iran for the implementation of a welcoming program.