title: Older adults' perceptions of feeling safe in urban and rural acute care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purposes of this study were to identify factors that influenced hospitalized older adults' perceptions of feeling safe and to identify differences in perceptions between rural and urban contexts.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Efforts are underway to ensure patient physical safety and improve care quality in acute-care environments. Perception of care is a unique and independent dimension of quality that includes patients' views of care and how these perceptions might affect responses to illness.
  
  
  METHODS
  Grounded theory method was used to identify the basic social process of feeling safe in acute care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Older adults felt safe when nurses provided oversight, were predictable, provided personalized care, and were willing to advocate for them.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings are consistent with professional models that center on the human relational components of care. Nurse leaders can facilitate practice environments where relational aspects of nurse work, including patients' perceptions of feeling safe, are the norm, thereby creating exceptional patient care delivery systems.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Department of Adult Health, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA. lasiters@iupui.edu
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lasiter
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duffy
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006780:Hospitals, Rural; D006786:Hospitals, Urban; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015146:Midwestern United States; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009732:Nursing Care; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D061214:Patient Safety; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D035502:Trust