Measuring the Science of Caring: A Patient-Centred Predictive Model for the Caring Interaction.
Regina Allande-Cussó, María Alejandra Pinero-De Plaza, Juan Gómez-Salgado and 1 others
PMID 40923645WHAT IT FOUND
Hospitalised patients reported nurse-patient caring interactions as therapeutic relationship, problem management and adaptation.
The model reports strong associations between these areas, but it measures perceptions and does not show that better caring improves patient outcomes.
Key findings
01The patient questionnaire was tested with 1060 adult internal medicine inpatients and produced a 21-item, 3-factor structure named therapeutic relationship, problem management and adaptation.
02The questionnaire's score consistency values were 0.97 and 0.92.
03The predictive model reported associations of 0.92 and 0.79 between therapeutic relationship and problem management, and between problem management and adaptation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show how caring interactions develop over time or that one factor causes another. The structure was found with exploratory factor analysis and was not confirmed with a new independent sample. It was conducted in internal medicine wards in one regional health system in Spain, so it may not apply to other settings or cultures. Patients reported their experiences, so recall and social desirability bias are possible. The study measured perceptions and did not report clinical outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Funding was from Instituto de Salud Carlos III.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the strong model associations as proof that nurse-patient caring causes better patient outcomes. The study measured patient perceptions in a cross-sectional design and did not establish how caring interactions change over time.