HOSPITAL NURSES PERCEPTIONS OF PATIENT TEACHING

Patient teaching in general hospitals is becoming increasingly importa nt both due to higher patient turnover and the principles of self-care . This study focuses on how hospital nurses describe ideals and realit ies in teaching adult patients in a general hospital, and how they des cribe the factors affecting their teaching function. The study has a q ualitative approach. Fourteen registered nurses, working in a general hospital, are interviewed. The interviews are semistructured. The four stages adapted from Glaser & Strauss grounded theory approach are use d as a support in the elaboration and the analysis of the data. The st udy shows that the ideals about patient teaching are rather weakly art iculated. The realities are, however, more distinctly described. Empir ical findings reveal two different 'teaching processes' articulated by the informants. Both processes are novel and different from the tradi tional teaching process mentioned in the literature. Which processes t he nurses are applying in the clinic seem to depend on the objective a nd content of the patient teaching. This evidence has so far not been reported in previous studies. Regarding the factors affecting their pa tient leaching, the nurses emphasize the following three; The nurses' qualifications, training in the teaching function and the organization al setting.