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Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Patient Preferences

Going to the doctors office can be an uncomfortable situation for many. Many patients have prefer their nurse and doctor to be the same sex as they are. I am a female and would personally want a female doctor and nurse, I don't know why, but it is just a little more comforting knowing that whatever is happening to me might have happened to them. This isn't true for all, but it it is not crazy to assume that I am the only one like this. So I read an interesting study pertaining to patients preference for a male or female nurse. 

Purpose: The study aimed to discover whether these preferences changed over time. 

What were they asked to do? Participants were asked to take a survey, this survey analyzed their preference when it came to age, gender, and previous experience of with a nurse of a specific gender. 

Conclusion: The study concluded that females typically prefer female nurses, and this did not vary over time. However, males typically did not care if their nurse was male or female. As expected, preferences were heavily influenced by the situation and level of intimacy.

Casey W.


URL: 
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2002.02079.x/asset/j.1365-2648.2002.02079.x.pdf?v=1&t=if6ctul8&s=6a7eca152eef15f408001f13282d3854442ffa82

Work Cited:

Chur‐Hansen, Anna. "Preferences for female and male nurses: the role of age, gender and previous experience–year 2000 compared with 1984." Journal of advanced nursing 37.2 (2002): 192-198.

2 comments:

  1. This is really interesting! Do you think there are other factors that determine the preference? I never really had a preference on whether I'm more comfortable with a male or female. I read an article on how most athletes prefer male coaches compared to female coaches. I think maybe because nurses are supposed to be comforting, females are typically known to have that job.
    Larissa

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  2. When I needed to go see a physician immediately it didn't matter what sex the nurse and doctor were. The level of intimacy during the visit has a major influence on who the patient picks, but when you need an appointment as soon as possible it doesn't matter. The level of urgency can also have an influence on who the patient chooses.

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