User, client or patient?: which term is more frequently used by nursing students?

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify which term is more frequently used by nursing students - user, client or patient - and also to acknowledge the collective understanding of each term. This prospective, quantitative-qualitative research was conducted at the Nursing School of the University of São Paulo with students from all Nursing Baccalaureate years. From the 215 students approached by the study, 162 responded to the question. Of this number, 60% used the term "user" most frequently. Regardless the term employed in healthcare practice, it is important to highlight that the common concepts of autonomy and health service must be respected as a right, while the inhumane relationship and passiveness must be ousted in the dialogic relationship established between healthcare professionals and users-clients-patients.

The Client Capital in Nursing Management in Hospitals

“…24 Assessing client service and satisfaction, similar to companies in other segments that need to retain their clients, should be valued in healthcare organizations because they provide and sell complex services that, in most cases, the client spontaneously would not like to receive or are undesirable due to illness, need for recovery of their health or maintenance of life. 3 In this aspect, it can be inferred that even if they do not wish to return to the hospital, the satisfied client is a source of referral to other clients and to the positive image of the organization thus highlighting its social mission in the health system.…”

“…For he/she is the one who uses and pays for the service, whether in the private or public sector. 3 In this sense, CC management in organizations should be directed towards customer satisfaction with actions involving the components: client retention; acquisition of a new customer; client support; client driven innovation; relationship; communication; complaints; trust; quick response and company image. 1 These components, in the context of hospital organizations, are experienced differently from other organizations, because the health area is influenced by the political and social system of the country, whose production planning should consider it as a company that takes care of human life, 4 but also needs to adopt good management practices oriented towards the efficiency in its core business.…”

Specialized Nursing Terminology for the Clinical Practice Directed at Covid-19

“…Despite having different roots, the term to be used in the practice of care must prioritize the respect for autonomy and health service as rights that must be respected, in the same way that the inhuman relationship and passivity must be left out in the dialogical relationship that is being intended to be established between health professionals and the user-client-patient. 30 In general, it can be understood that the terms translate determinant factors of client health and thus characterize with greater precision the specificities of care priorities, representing a contribution to the structuring of diagnoses, results and Nursing interventions, thus helping for the operationalization of nursing care systematization.…”

Cultural differences in General and Psychiatric Nurses: A critical analysis using Social Identity Theory

“…[20] Arguably, by developing a distinctive set of concepts and vocabulary to describe their work, psychiatric nurses are adopting this strategy to raise their status. The term 'patient' is traditionally used to describe the person whom a physician treats [80] and implies a subservient and passive role for the individual, [81,82] which is considered incompatible with contemporary psychiatric nursing. Although still commonly used within the wider health services, this word is now employed less frequently in psychiatric nursing literature, where the individual is more often referred to as a 'service user'.…”