title: Patient identification of caregivers' titles: do they know who you are?
abstract: This study investigated patients' abilities to identify licensed nurse and unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) and whether this knowledge is related to satisfaction with care. Of 100 patients from two hospitals, 28% did not know whether caregivers were nurses or UAP on sight. Fifteen percent of patients asked to identify UAP assumed that the caregiver was a nurse. Patients could not recognize their nurse or UAP caregivers 59% of the time from a list of names. Patients were three times more likely to know the names and titles of their nurses. Older patients were less likely to remember the names and titles of their caregivers. Satisfaction with nursing care was not predicted by patients' knowledge of caregiver name or title.
authors.affiliation: Fairfield University School of Nursing, Fairfield, CT 06430, USA. jlange@mail.fairfield.edu
authors.forename: Jean W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Lange
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008004:Licensure; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009726:Nurses; D009728:Nursing Assistants; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010865:Pilot Projects