Patientens upplevelse av delaktighet i vårdavdelningens hygienarbete

Abstract

Background: While on a hospital ward, patients could fall victim to several consequences relating to a lack in personal as well as hospital related hygiene such as healthcare related infections and social exclusion. According to current nursing theories, healthcare should strive to make the patient on equal footing and empower the patient to make them a part of the care. An orthopedic ward in Mölndal, Sweden highlighted this issue and wanted to evaluate how the patients themselves could become more participating in the patient’s own hygiene. The ward requested this study to be made with the aim to examine how the patient perceives its participation in their own hygiene in a hospital setting. Method: The study used a qualitative interviewing method on five patients at the orthopedic ward and then analyzed the interviews using a qualitative analyzing method. The results show that the patient wants to partake in their own hygiene as much as possible, but feel that they like the information of what they are allowed to do and are expected to do, at the same time as they don’t feel like they should be asking for help, but instead motivated by the personnel and or static information on the ward. Discussion: It became clear that the patient wanted to become more involved in their own care, but the lack of information made this difficult. The conclusion that more information from the wards side could help the patient become a greater participant in their own care could therefore be drawn.