Patients’ Satisfaction and Associated Factors with Nursing Care Services in Selected Hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia

Background: Patients satisfaction measures have developed tremendous attractions in the sector of health care delivery services for the purpose of ascertaining the quality of health care services in general and nursing care in particular. It is everyone’s most common experience to witness significant patient/ client complaints and dissatisfactions with respect to hospital healthcare deliveries, particularly nursing care services. The objectives of this study was to determine adult patients’ satisfaction and associated factors with nursing care at Felege Hiwot Referral and Finote Selam District hospitals, Amhara region, Northwest Ethiopia 2013. Methods: Institutional- based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 1-30, 2013. Systematic random sampling technique was employed and 374 patients were selected from the study wards of the selected hospitals. A 19-items questionnaire, which involved a 5-point Likert scale, was employed to collect the data. Data were collected by trained data collectors using pretested structured questionnaires. Data were checked for completeness, consistency, coded and entered into EPI Info (version 3.5.2) and transferred to SPSS version 16 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was computed to test the strength of association and level of significance. P-value <0.05 was considered as statistical significant. Results: The overall satisfaction was found to be 67.1%. Freedom, privacy given to patients and the capabilities of the nurses at their jobs were the top areas of patients have got satisfied on nursing care services delivered. Patients who were admitted to referral hospital were less likely to be satisfied (AOR= 0.047; CI: 0.02-0.14) than those admitted to district hospital. Patients who earned free hospital services were two times more likely to be satisfied in the overall satisfaction than those who paid for the hospital services (AOR=2.01;CI: 1.27-3.48) and those patients who were under acute conditions were less likely to report overall satisfaction with nursing care services (AOR = 0.406; CI 0.21-0.77) than those under chronic illness. Conclusions: A significant proportion of the study participants (67.1%) were satisfied with the overall nursing care services. Differences in the level hospitals where patients admitted to, their ward service type, and their condition of illness were found to be statistically significant predictors of patients' satisfaction. However, the hospitals service needs improvement. The Amhara national regional state (ANRS) Health Bureau is recommended to launch intervention programs to foster the information provision skills and the skills of making clients feel well of the nursing staff at the study hospitals. "