Relationships between patient-centered cancer nursing interventions and desired health outcomes in the context of the health care system.

A non-experimental longitudinal prospective study was conducted to examine the relationships between patient-centered nursing interventions (PCNIs), system characteristics, patient characteristics, and desired health outcomes (DHOs) for 173 hematology-oncology patients. Forty-nine nurse participants provided system characteristics data. Confirmatory factor analyses yielded parsimonious scales to operationalize the variables. In the path model, one PCNI-individualization-was positively related to three subsequent DHOs: authentic self-representation, optimism, and sense of well-being. Two additional PCNIs-responsiveness and proficiency-were positively related to subsequent trust in nurses. PCNIs did not vary with patient race, ethnicity, age, gender, or educational level. Patient-centeredness of care for cancer patients may be enhanced by quality improvement activities that measure and monitor these PCNIs and resultant outcomes. 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.