Authors

  1. Ryan-Wenger, Nancy A. PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN
  2. Gardner, William PhD

Abstract

Hospitalized children and adolescents (n = 496), aged 6 to 21 years, were asked to evaluate the quality of their nursing care by describing nurse behaviors that they liked and disliked. They named 1673 positive nurse behaviors (12 categories) that made them feel good, happy, safe, and cared about, including "gives me what I need when I need it" (42.3%) and "checks on me often" (34.7%). Six categories of negative nurse behaviors (n = 485), such as "does things to me that hurt or are uncomfortable" (64.1%) and "wakes me up" (24%), made them feel sad, bad, mad, scared, or annoyed.