The phenomenon of consumerism in medical services from the patient’s and nurse’s perspective

Abstract

Introduction: The phenomenon of consumerism in health care refers to the medical services provided. Currently, patients have more and more demands and they are aware of their rights. This may cause conflicts on the patient-nurse line. Material and methods: The data were acquired from the Author’s Survey Questionnaire for Nurses and Author’s Survey Questionnaire for Patients. The study was conducted from May 2019 to December 2019. Results: There were fairly significant differences in the views of nurses and patients on virtually all aspects of health care funding and, in general, health policy pursued in Poland. Patients believed that they should make decisions about their treatment, whereas, in the opinion of nurses, they generally should not be responsible for such decisions. It is worth noting that patients felt that they should be in charge of their treatment but that nurses should be responsible for the outcomes. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that patients more frequently than nurses think they are responsible for both treatment and treatment outcomes. Nurses claimed they do not have the right to decide about treatment and should not be responsible for treatment outcomes.