5^th World Holistic Nursing Conference

Prioritized care is a term used to defi ne nurses’ inability to carry out holistic care for patients. Literature and the world view suggest that this phenomenon of prioritized care challenges the basic concept of nursing care. It has also been closely linked with issues of patient safety, satisfaction and has been negatively

associated with nurse’s job experience. A quantitative study was undertaken among 100 staff nurses in a tertiary care hospital of South India to identify the activities that nurses gave least and most priority and to also explore the factors responsible for nurse’s decision for prioritization. Findings revealed that individual needs based interventional care like emotional support and teaching, basic care interventions like mouth care, ambulation, etc. were given less priority by nurses. Activities related to therapeutic and diagnostic procedures

like administration of medications, were given more priority majority of nurses cited inadequacy of human resource and communication failure as reasons for prioritization. Th e fi ndings suggested a deviation of nursing practice from the original holistic concept of the discipline. Nurse leaders need to acknowledge measure and prevent prioritization to ensure a climate of patient safety and better professional experience for nurses.