An analysis of the ability of nurses to identify the anxiety levels of patients in general medical and surgical wards

Abstract

The study investigated whether qualified nurses could distinguish between low and high anxiety in general medical and surgical wards. The sample comprised 94 patients and 62 nurses in two district general hospitals. The patients completed the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Version Y and were divided into high and low anxiety groups by reference to the published norms for the inventory. The nurses independently rated the patients into either high or low anxiety groups according to whether or not they believed individual patients needed more nursing time than was usual to help them to manage their anxiety. The joint ratings were signficant beyond the 0.01 level, supporting the hypothesis that the nurses could distinguish between high and low anxiety patients. However when data from the two hospitals were separated, the overall results were only significant in the hospital where patients had reported significantly lower average levels of anxiety. A tentative explanatory hypothesis is that assessment of patients may be easier where the general background level of patient anxiety in a ward is relatively low. In a subsidiary part of the study, feedback and group training failed to increase the correspondence between nurses' ratings and those obtained from the patients' questionnaires. The research method for comparing the views of patients with those of nurses proved practical for implementation in busy hospital wards and may therefore be useful for other investigations in similar settings.