Assessing the quality of nursing care services for outpatients in the kingdom of saudi arabia

Background: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia employees a large number of health professionals from various nationalities. It is pertinent to assume that nursing of patients would be affected seriously owing to the differences in professional attitude of health care nurses working in various hospitals in KSA. Moreover, there is no research study that has investigated the outdoor patient’s satisfaction, therefore this study is to provide base line for evaluating patients satisfaction regarding health care services. Purpose: Main aim of this study was to assess the patients’ satisfaction related to quality of nursing care provided at King Khaled (KKH) and King Fahad (KFH) Hospitals in Tabuk City, Saudi Arabia. Method: Cross-sectional descriptive study design was used to recruit 100 patients from outpatient department (OPD) in two regional hospitals in Saudi Arabia. A standardized questionnaire, “Patient Satisfaction with Nursing Care Quality Questionnaire (PSNCQQ) was used to collect data with slight modifications to suit regional cultural variations. Results: The majority of the OPD patients were satisfied with the quality of nursing care provided by the two governmental hospitals. Courtesy and respect was found to be the highest rates parameter among the several tested parameters of quality care which indicates a strong cultural norms of care and family values are still intact. It also revealed that the patients were least satisfied on how much nurses values the importance of choices with regards to treatment and the recognition of patient’s opinions. Conclusion: Overall quality of nursing care was satisfactory however a communication gap between patients and nurses needs to be removed wherein patients would be involved in making decision about certain medical care and treatments. Health care strategies should thus focus on improving communication skills of the nursing staff to have a stronger impact on health care satisfaction level among the patients.