[Humanistic nursing care].

The purpose of this study is to describe the degree of humanistic nursing care in different health care facilities as perceived by specialized nurses, registered nurses and licensed practical nurses. The problems of study are as follows: 1) What is the degree of humanistic nursing care as perceived by specialized nurses, registered nurses and practical nurses? 2) Do the nurses' perceptions of humanistic nursing differ between types of hospitals? The materials were gathered by a questionnaire which was compiled on the basis of the scale of humanistic nursing created and tested by Fenton (1987). In this scale, humanistic nursing is divided into four dimensions, including empathy, status equality, holistic selves, and shared decision-making and responsibility. The scale consisted of 70 statements describing patient and nursing staff behaviors, which were placed in a questionnaire with a 5-point Likert format. Fenton's scale was translated into Finnish as accurately as possible. Of the four dimensions of humanistic nursing care, the one-way analysis of variance revealed a statistically significant difference in the sum index for two dimensions and highly significant difference for one dimension by types of hospitals. The means of the equal status sum index differed in a statistically significant way among different hospitals. The sum index for status equality in nursing and the means computed for the statement measuring status equality in the nurses' own ward indicated that the nursing staff employed in central hospitals and health centers regard nursing as much more equal than those working in district hospitals. The central hospital nursing staff considered nursing care slightly more equal than those working in health centers.