Measuring patient satisfaction with nursing care: experience of using the Newcastle Satisfaction with Nursing Scale

Patient satisfaction with care has frequently been used as a measurement of quality, especially in attempts to demonstrate the bene fits of changes in nursing practice, Unfortunately such attempts have frequently failed as pa tient satisfaction ratings have lacked sensitivity, consistently achieving very high scores. They have also failed to isolate the nursing component fr om the whole health care experience. The Newcastle Satisfaction with Nursin g Scale (NSNS) has been developed after extensive research work as an attem pt to establish reliable and valid measures of patients' experiences of and satisfaction with nursing care. This study evaluated the use of the NSNS i n practice and found that it was readily understood by patients and easily administered by clinical staff. However, several lessons were learnt which could help its administration. The results demonstrated a very high degree of satisfaction with nursing care which left the discriminatory ability of the scale open to question, although its potential benefits in standard set ting were demonstrated. Further evaluative studies are needed if the potent ial benefits of the NSNS are to be fully realised.