Mahdia M Elshahat, B.Sc. in Nursing
Identifying and meeting the expectations of the patients about health services quality by the perception of health care providers is widely accepted as one of the health system functioning indicators. The aim of the study was to identify perceptions of nurses and patients' expectations of nursing service quality in medical and surgical departments at Benha University Hospital. The study subjects included (210) patients and (210) nurses. The tool used for data collection was service quality instrument (SERVQUAL), it contains 22 items divided in five dimensions; tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The results showed that, the highest total score of nurses' perceptions and patients' expectations of nursing service quality dimensions was for empathy dimension, while the lowest mean score was for responsiveness dimension. Moreover, there were highly significant differences between nurses' perceptions and patients' expectations in three nursing service quality dimensions; tangibles, responsiveness and empathy. The study recommended to keep lines of communication opened between nurses and patients in the hospital, and nurses should be encouraged for educational growth in nursing to promote nurses growth for understanding of patients' expectations, increasing numbers of nursing staff members in hospital to ensure providing accurate nursing care and meeting health needs of patients and their expectations.
Key words: Quality of health care, quality of nursing services, Nurses' perceptions, and patients' expectations.