From patient satisfaction to patient experience: A call to action for nursing in China

Abstract

Aim: This commentary presents a preliminary overview of patient experience studies to advocate for advancing research and practice focusing on patient experience in nursing in China. Background: There is a growing worldwide focus on evaluation of patient experience. Increasing numbers of national patient experience surveys have been conducted in China; however, nursing seems to be overlooked in this growing trend. Evaluation: A systematic search and review of studies reporting patient experience in nursing was conducted with China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) from inception through 11 November 2019. Key issues: Inappropriate use and expression of patient experience led to confusion and misunderstandings. High-quality studies specifically for patient experience was lacking, especially those adopting quantitative and mixed methods designs. Tools with adequate input from nursing were scant. Conclusions: Patient experience studies in nursing are still nascent in China in terms of quantity, quality and diversity. Implications for Nursing Management: The concept of patient experience should be clearly defined through performing a systematic integrative review. Well-conducted qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies are especially needed. Nursing should be more involved in development of tool for measuring patient experience, and an instrument with a clear construct definition, systematically developed and psychometrically validated, constructed by nursing researchers will be valuable.