• K N Huggins, W M Gandy, and C D Kohut.
• Emergency Department, Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis, TN.
• Heart Lung. 1993 Jul 1; 22 (4): 356-64.

ObjectiveTo identify which behaviors performed by emergency department nurses were perceived by patients as important indicators of caring.DesignDescriptive.SettingTwo private urban emergency departments.SubjectsAmbulatory patients treated in the emergency department and interviewed by telephone within 30 days of discharge. The resulting sample consisted of a total of 288 interviews including 81 patients in the emergent group, 99 in the urgent group, and 108 in the nonurgent group. Of the 288 patients, 49% were male and 51% were female.Outcome MeasuresIndividual and composite measures of perceptions of nurse caring behaviors as measured with the Caring Behaviors Assessment, satisfaction with care, and patients' evaluation of their medical condition.ResultsPatients in all triage categories were found to assign the greatest importance to the technical nursing behaviors as indicators of nurse caring. Polychotomous logistic regression indicated that, although subscale differences occurred, they did not account for substantial differences among triage categories. Kruskall-Wallis one way ANOVA revealed no significant differences between triage levels and ratings of level of personal concern. Chi-square analysis indicated that patients in the emergent group identified fewer caring behaviors that the nurse must perform to demonstrate caring compared with patients in the nonurgent group.ConclusionsPatients experience nurse caring behavior most consistently from the technical aspects of nursing care.

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