Empowering Nurses to Provide Humanized Care in Canadian Hospital Care Units

Abstract

Previous studies have reported a conflict between nurses' motivation to provide humanized care and practical requirements impeding them from doing so. This exploratory descriptive qualitative study aimed to explore nurses' perspectives on humanized care, the challenges they face, and, most importantly, their recommendations to overcome these barriers. Semistructured individual interviews were conducted with 17 auxiliary and registered nurses working in various health care units in a Canadian hospital. Participants demonstrated a good understanding of what humanized care covers and entails. They also described it as the very core of their profession and main source of job satisfaction. However, nurses reported that they are confronted with organizational barriers, mainly a lack of staff, the burden of administrative tasks, unsuitable physical environments or equipment, and little managerial support. Nurses stressed the need for a cultural change in managerial practices in order to be able to improve their provision of humanized care. Based on the findings, 4 structuring recommendations were identified: adopting an institutional policy promoting the implementation of humanized care, incorporating humanized care in nurses' tasks and procedures, improving participatory management, and ensuring adequate staffing.

Nursing Students and Nurses’ Recommendations Aiming at Improving the Development of the Humanistic Caring Competency

“…Conversely, the cynicism in the present study seemed to relate more to the perceived possibility of lightening the work overload, a perception that was remarkable in students' shared experiences, but appeared to fade and transform into an "unattainable" goal several years after graduation (hence the cynical attitude). This attitude is consonant with feelings of "powerlessness" and "resignment" that nurses expressed facing their struggles in humanizing care in previous studies (Cassiano et al, 2015;Guillaumie et al, 2020). The experienced and accomplished nurses in the present study understood that changing the work overload involved exerting political influences towards various stakeholders, an agenda that is usually led by unions.…”

“…On the contrary, the findings also underscored that diminishing the work overload could not guarantee humanization of care, a perception that contrasts heavily with the recommendations of several publications such as increasing ward attendant and nursing staff ( Guillaumie et al, 2020 ), ensuring adequate working conditions ( Busch et al, 2019 ), counting on the public for caring for their loved ones while in the hospital to reduce basic patient care workload ( Chen et al, 2017 ) and focusing on organizational factors such as time constraints, heavy workloads and staffing levels ( Christiansen et al, 2015 ). As previous publications pointed out ( Beltrán-Salazar, 2014 , 2016 ; Guillaumie et al, 2020 ), task-oriented care organizations exhort nurses to accomplish care procedures and other technical tasks as quickly as possible, which may be interiorized to a point of focusing predominantly on these aspects: this is perhaps why the interviewees questioned whether or not nurses would reinvest the “extra time” in humanizing care. When taking the findings of the present study altogether, tackling the work overload may not necessarily be the best strategy because nurses potentially “forgot” the necessity of humanistic caring or they abandoned this professional ideal.…”

“…Lightening the work overload was, unsurprisingly, a recommendation voiced by the majority of the respondents. Indeed, it is not the first time that work overload is pointed at as a strong barrier to humanization of care ( Beltrán-Salazar, 2014 ; Busch et al, 2019 ; Calegari et al, 2015 ; Chen et al, 2017 ; Christiansen et al, 2015 ; de Carli et al, 2018 ; Guillaumie et al, 2020 ; Hunter et al, 2018 ; Nijboer & van der Cingel, 2019 ; Reis et al, 2016 ; Roch et al, 2014 ; Tehraninesha et al, 2019 ). What the present study may add to the existing literature regarding this recommendation is the development of a “cynical attitude” cooccurring with the acquisition of clinical experience; and the perception that not all nurses would necessarily reinvest the time generated by a lighter workload in humanization of care.…”

“…The most salient suggestion being applicable to the clinical settings corresponds to the reduction of work overload, a finding that was highlighted in a considerable number of studies pertaining to humanistic caring ( Beltrán-Salazar, 2014 ; Busch et al, 2019 ; Calegari et al, 2015 ; Chen et al, 2017 ; Christiansen et al, 2015 ; de Carli et al, 2018 ; Guillaumie et al, 2020 ; Hunter et al, 2018 ; Nijboer & van der Cingel, 2019 ; Reis et al, 2016 ; Roch et al, 2014 ; Tehraninesha et al, 2019 ). In this study, second- and third-year students voiced their concerns about the work overload and seasoned nurses (experienced and accomplished) were not convinced that this recommendation could be realistically put into action.…”

[Retracted] Effect of the Holistic Nursing Model of Responsibility System on the Mental State of Elderly Patients with Limb Fractures Fixed by Splints in the Emergency Department

“…It is applied to the training and management of the whole nursing staf in the hospital, and good nursing efects are achieved. However, no literature has been found on the application of limb fractures to emergency elderly patients [8][9][10]. In this study, 150 emergency elderly patients with limb fractures treated by TCM splint fxation in our hospital were respectively managed by traditional rehabilitation nursing and the overall nursing mode of responsibility system, and the intervention efects of the two groups of patients were observed.…”