Analyzing Hospital Environments Provided By Nurses: A Qualitative Study

The purpose of this study is to explore ways nurses provide an optimal healing environment in the hospital setting. One aim of this research is to identify gaps between nurses’ confidence in their ability to provide a healing environment and patient interpretation of the environment they received. Additionally, this paper looks for missing information in healing environment literature and pinpoints where hospital systems can be improved to help nurses and patients under their care. Data was collected through two online surveys created with Qualtrics Research Core™. One was taken by registered nurses who annotated how well they execute each domain of an Optimal Healing Environment (OHE) and what hinders their performance. The other survey was given to individuals who have been a patient in an Arizona hospital, and they commented on the environment they experienced. Total surveyed subjects include three nurses and four previously hospitalized patients. Data collected was not enough to make any conclusions so additional literature was reviewed and patterns between the literature and survey responses were analyzed. There is a consensus around what a healing environment should look like but there is no explanation as to who is responsible for creating one and what is the nurse’s role, if any. It was concluded that there needs to be more research on the practice of providing healing environments.