The inaccuracy of nurses' perception of elderly patients' well-being

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Abstract
Thirty elderly day hospital patients rated two aspects of their well-being: life-satisfaction and depression. The key-nurse estimated these values for each patient, using the same, validated scales. Patients' ratings of life-satisfaction and depression intercorrelated. as did the nurses' estimates, but the nurses' scores were unrelated to those of the patients. Patients' well-being correlated with their estimates of the time they spent in solitary activity, whereas nurses' estimates correlated with overt engagement and behavioural dependency. It is likely that general nurses' lack of perception of their elderly patients' well-being arises, in part, because their assessments are based on aspects of their patients' overt behaviour which are unrelated to actual well-being.

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