Patient-centered care, nurse work environment and implicit rationing of nursing care in Swiss acute care hospitals: A cross-sectional multi-center study.

BACKGROUND: Patient-centered care is a key element of high-quality healthcare and determined by individual, structural and process factors. Patient-centered care is associated with improved patient-reported, clinical and economic outcomes. However, while hospital-level characteristics influence patient-centered care, little evidence is available on the association of patient-centered care with characteristic such as the nurse work environment or implicit rationing of nursing care.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe patient-centered care in Swiss acute care hospitals and to explore the associations with nurse work environment factors and implicit rationing of nursing care.

DESIGN: This is a sub-study of the cross-sectional multi-center "Matching Registered Nurse Services with Changing Care Demands" study.

SETTING: We included 123 units in 23 acute care hospitals from all three of Switzerland's language regions.

PARTICIPANTS: The sample consisted of 2073 patients, hospitalized for at least 24 h and ≥18 years of age. From the same hospital units, 1810 registered nurses working in direct patient care were also included.

METHODS: Patients' perceptions of patient-centered care were assessed using four items from the Generic Short Patient Experiences Questionnaire. Nurses completed questionnaires assessing perceived staffing and resource adequacy, adjusted staffing, leadership ability and level of implicit rationing of nursing care. We applied a Generalized Linear Mixed Models for analysis including individual-level patient and nurse data aggregated to the unit level.

RESULTS: Patients reported high levels of patient-centered care: 90% easily understood nurses, 91% felt the treatment and care were adapted for their situation, 82% received sufficient information, and 70% felt involved in treatment and care decisions. Higher staffing and resource adequacy was associated with higher levels of patient-centered care, e.g., sufficient information (β 0.638 [95%-CI: 0.30-0.98]). Higher leadership ratings were associated with sufficient information (β 0.403 [95%-CI: 0.03-0.77) and adapted treatment and care (β 0.462 [95%-CI: 0.04-0.88]). Furthermore, higher levels of implicit rationing of nursing care were associated with lower levels of patient-centered care, e.g., adapted treatment and care (β -0.912 [95%-CI: -1.50-0.33]).

CONCLUSION: Our study shows a negative association between implicit rationing of nursing care and patient-centered care: i.e.the lower the level of implicit rationing of nursing care, the better patients understood nurses, felt sufficiently informed and recognized that they were receiving highly individualized treatment. To improve patient-centered care, the nurse work environment and the level of implicit rationing of nursing care should be taken into consideration.