The Process of Satisfaction with Nursing Care in Parents of Hospitalized Children: A Grounded Theory Study

Purpose: Satisfaction is the result of a process; to assess satisfaction, the care recipients’ experiences of the services received should be understood and efforts should be made to understand how these experiences have formed that satisfaction.The purpose was to understand the processes of satisfaction with nursing care in parents of hospitalized children.Methods: The present grounded theory study was conducted on 25 participants selected through theoretical sampling and examined using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Interviews where promptly transcribed after they each ended. The data obtained were analyzed concurrently with their collection based on Strauss and Corbin’s method of data analysis (1998) in three steps: open, axial and selective coding.Results: The main concern of the parents in the process of satisfaction with nursing care was the “influence of insecurity”. The parents were put in an unstable context of care, upon which they resorted to the “prudent gaining of certainty” strategy. In this process, intrapersonal and extra personal triggers acted as facilitators and personal weaknesses as inhibitors, and “fluctuating trust” was the result of the process.Conclusions: Gaining certainty plays an important role in the formation of satisfaction with nursing care, and the particular characteristics of the context of care have a crucial effect on the intensity or weakness of the developed trust; eventually, the developed certainty results in trust in the received care, which further emphasizes the importance of nurses' efforts for facilitating an ascertaining care.