Patient's perspectives on factors affecting student-patient relationship: a descriptive-analytical study

Relationship is an essential aspect of human life. During the course of illnesses and hospitalization, student-patient relationship significantly contributes to patient satisfaction and nursing care quality. The objective of the present study was to identify the factors affecting student-patient relationship from the perspectives of patients. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in 2013 on 100 patients hospitalized in Imam Reza (PBUH) and Valiasr (PBUH) teaching hospitals, Birjand, Iran. Data collection was done by using a researcher-made instrument on patients’ perspectives on factors affecting student-patient relationship which included the four subscales of personal, social, environmental, and clinical factors. Data analysis was performed by using the SPSS software (v. 16.0), the measures of descriptive statistics, and the inferential statistics tests such as the independent-samples t, the one-way analysis of variance, the Mann-Whitney U, and the Kruskal-Wallis. The level of significance was set at below 0.05. The most and the least significant factors affecting student-patient relationship were respectively environmental factors (with a mean of 3.74±0.98) and personal factors (with a mean of 3.22±0.71). There was a significant correlation between social factors and participants’ gender and history of hospitalization as well as between environmental factors and participants’ marital status (P<0.05). Study findings suggest that the main factors affecting student-patient relationship are environmental factors, particularly poor environmental condition. Therefore, the effects of these factors should be moderated in order to enhance patients’ satisfaction with nursing services.