Cancer Patient and Staff Perceptions of Caring and Clinical Care in Free versus Forced Choice Response Formats

Abstract

Two questions were investigated: whether cancer patients (n = 32) and staff (n = 30) have different cognitive representations of the concepts 'caring' (Swedish: 'omvårdnad') and 'clinical care' (Swedish: 'vård'), and whether results differ between forced vs. free choice response formats. Two Swedish versions of the CARE-Q instrument were used: (i) a CARE-Q sorting (forced format) and (ii) a CARE-Questionnaire (free format). Four groups of patients and 4 groups of staff completed (i) the forced format/caring, (ii) the forced format/clinical care, (iii) the free format/caring and (iv) the free format/clinical care versions, respectively. Participants were asked to rank the importance of 50 CARE-Q behaviours for the specific method/concept combination. Results demonstrated that neither patients nor staff, to any great extent, valued CARE-Q subscales differently when regarded as examples of 'caring' vs. 'clinical care'. Further, the free vs. forced choice format did not influence patient and staff perceptions of the importance of CARE-Q subscales, except that both groups gave higher values to all subscales in the free choice response format. The assumptions that different cognitive representations of the concepts or the response formats had affected previous CARE-Q results were not substantiated.

Who cares? A critical discussion of the value of caring from a patient and healthcare professional perspective

“…The highest mean in this group was observed in the professional knowledge and skill sub-scale. Similar findings have been reported in previous nursing research reporting that patients judged nurses on technical aspects of care and so perceived professional knowledge and skill as the most important sub-scale of the CBI (Gooding et al, 1993;Holroyd et al, 1998;Larsson et al, 1998;Papastavrou et al, 2011;Widmark-Petersson et al, 2000;Zamanzadeh et al, 2010).…”

“…Although empirical studies in respect of patients' and nurses' perceptions of caring behaviours have unearthed similar significant differences (Chang et al, 2005;Hajinezhad et al, 2011;Larson, 1984;Larsson et al, 1998;Papastavrou et al, 2012;Widmark-Petersson et al, 2000), none have examined perceptions of caring behaviours as reported by doctors, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. The intricacy of caring perceptions from both patients and healthcare professionals enables the researcher to acknowledge the complexities of caring behaviours exhibited during caring interactions, forming naturalistic generalizations about the information obtained from the research (Creswell, 2013;Miles and Huberman, 2013).…”

“…Healthcare professionals' espoused beliefs about care and caring may not translate into everyday caring behaviours or practice. So it is imperative that healthcare professionals seek to validate the care they provide with the patients they care for (Christopher and Hegedus, 2000;Widmark-Petersson et al, 2000). Otherwise any discrepancy in perceived importance may result in the needs of the patient being unmet and subsequent dissatisfaction with care received (Chang et al, 2005;Wolf et al, 2003Wolf et al, , 2008.…”

“…In subsequent studies nurse caring was found to be associated with expressive and relational behaviours (O'Connell and Landers, 2008) rather than instrumental care (Papastavrou and Efstathiou, 2010). Generally empirical studies on caring in relation to nursing have unearthed similar significant differences in perceptions of caring behaviours (Chang et al, 2005;Hajinezhad et al, 2011;Larson, 1984;Larsson et al, 1998;Papastavrou et al, 2012;Porter et al, 2014;Widmark-Petersson et al, 2000).…”

Nurses’ and patients’ perceptions of caring behaviours: quantitative systematic review of comparative studies

“…1987, Larson 1987, Mayer 1987, vonEssen & Sjöden 1991, vonEssen et al. 1994, Widmark‐Petersson et al. 1998, Tuckett et al.…”