Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between staff nurses' perceptions of nurse manager caring behaviors and patient experience.
BACKGROUND: Despite numerous interventions aimed at changing the provision of patient care to improve care quality, patient experience scores have remained moderate. Little research has been conducted exploring how caring relationships in the professional practice environment might play a role in the patient experience of care.
METHODS: A cross-sectional, correlational design was used to examine the relationship between staff nurses' perceptions of nurse manager caring behaviors as measured by the Caring Assessment Tool-Administration (CAT-Adm) and acute-care patient experience using the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores.
RESULTS: There was a positive relationship between the staff nurses' perceptions of nurse manager caring behaviors and patients' HCAHPS overall hospital rating. There also was a positive relationship between the CAT-Adm scores and nurse manager visibility.
CONCLUSION: Departments had higher HCAHPS overall hospital rating when the staff nurses perceived their unit manager as caring. In addition, the more staff nurses actually visualized their nurse manager during a shift, the more they perceived their nurse manager as caring.